BBC article - History of 5972 Olton Hall

Having visited the HP studio tour last year, in my opinion OH is doing a superb job where she is. Absolutely magical, all the children who were going round were thrilled to see a real steam loco. Lots of people commented they assumed it had all been CGI!
There are lots of non-magical Halls (and fairly identical GW 4-6-0s) around for the purists. The GWS is building about a dozen...

 

And what size Tin Hat would sir require?!

 

Well, NP has managed to bear out my comments, although, to be fair, it has also teased out a few less well-remembered details! Well-spotted the K1 - NELPG were duly credited.

In answer to an earlier comment, 34027 became associated with the book launches, firstly as itself and latterly as ‘Hogwarts Express’ ( not ‘Castle’): its last ivolvement was the UK book-launch tour. I was actually on the section from Manchester to York via Bradford, having just agreed the use of 5972 the day before (and couldn’t say anything!). It was that trip and the crowds which really brought home to me the huge popularity that Harry Potter was generating, at that point without a massive amount of hype.

As far as other locos were concerned, once the Art Director told me that a ‘Hall’ was the sort of thing he was after, it was no contest. It of course helped that WCR being an operator kept the number of involved parties to a minimum. Right at he end of the work for the last film, I asked one of the production managers whether they were happy with the results. His reply was that, when they started on the project, he’d originally suggested that maybe a few stock shots on a heritage railway was all they might expect.

It was hard work for nearly 10 years but great fun for all us, too, and the active participation of NR particularly shouldn’t be forgotten.

JS

 

This story seems to getting picked up all over the place.... only 17 years after it actually happened...

http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/...-is-a-gwr-train-built-in-swindon/?ref=mr&lp=9