Re: Steam Train Drivers

[repost - this doesn't seem to have appeared]

Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2009 00:12:32 GMT

On 10 Feb 2009 Welsh Dog wrote:

Was the question of Hermione, a first year student at age 11, being
able to access the driver of a *steam* train ever resolved
satisfactorily?

I suppose Remus might have apparated, or flew or something... but
Hermione's didn't know how to do any of that.

To remind people a 'train' consists of a series of carriages where
people sit pulled by a locomotive, often with a coal tender in between
the loco and the carriages.

To the best of my knowledge there is no way to get to the loco from
the carriages do how did she do it... and *please* don't come up with
the usual "magic" response!

Well, *some* engines do have a corridor tender (for long-distance work,
so that the crew could change over shifts without having to stop the
train).

However, the engine used in the films is definitely not that sort :-p

(And I very much doubt that JKR has ever looked closely enough at a
steam locomotive to notice whether or not its tender had a corridor
connection, anyway...)


I'd assume the answer, story-internally, is that she leaned out of the
window of the end compartment in the first coach and shouted/waved,
possibly with magical amplification - the engine has an open cab (no
back cab sheet) and she could probably attract the crew's attention over
the tender, especially if a lot of the coal had been used up by that
point. She'd have to make a *lot* of noise, though, unless one of the
crew happened to glance back along the train for one reason or another.

I don't have access to the books at the moment; can somebody remind me
exactly what episode we're talking about? :-)
--
Igenlode Visit the Ivory Tower http://ivory.150m.com/Tower/

The world owes you nothing. It was here first.

.

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