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The following podcast contains audio extracted from videos on the Harry Potter Theory YouTube channel.

Hey everyone, welcome to another instalment of Harry Potter Theory.

Today we're going to be discussing the Hogwarts Express and the UK National Rail Network.

With a platform that's invisible, inaccessible to Muggles, and a rail line that heads to a magical

school in the Scottish Highlands, you probably won't be surprised to hear me say that the railway

trip out to Hogwarts is unusual to say the least. Trains play a pivotal part in Harry Potter,

with Platform 9 in 3 quarters and the Hogwarts Express both playing a crucial role in Harry's

first trip away from the Dursleys and off into the wizarding world.

But have you ever wondered how this magical railway ride fits into a pre-existing national

rail network, the UK national rail network, to be specific, does the Hogwarts Express exist

entirely independently from the rest of these trains, or does it share some of the same

tracks? Does it transport some of the same passengers? Is the Hogwarts Express able

to magically avoid collisions? What gives? From our perspective, it all starts at platform

9 in 3 quarters at King's Cross Station, where students board the Hogwarts Express,

a scarlet steam engine transporting students to and from Hogwarts.

The platform can be accessed by walking straight through the barrier between platforms 9

and 10, but you may have a bit of a hard time if it's A, you'll first go, or B, you're a muggle.

Platform 9 in 3 quarters was of course filmed at Kingstros station on the edge of central

London. It's an active railway station, but at the real station you will find that

...