The National Rail Museum has announced that it will be using the Olton Hall, known to Potter fans as the Hogwarts Express, as a shuttle between it’s two museums [The National Rail Museum and Locomotion] for the next two weekends.

Olton Hall, which featured in the Harry Potter films as the Hogwarts Express, along with No. 70013 Oliver Cromwell, which pulled British Rail’s last steam-hauled train in 1968, will be used for the shuttle services that start this weekend and continue on September 24 and 25. While Olton Hall has been a regular visitor to the NRM in York, the locomotive has only appeared in fully operational steam on a handful of occasions.

The NRM’s head of knowledge and collections, Helen Ashby, said: “We’re delighted to finally announce the names of the two steam locomotives expected to haul our September shuttles, especially as both are railway icons in their own right. The shuttles provide a rare opportunity for members of the public to ride on an operational steam locomotive and take advantage of two museums dedicated to railways at either end of the line. It seems only fitting that such big names in steam take centre stage at this milestone event in the history of the two museums.”