5972 Olton Hall
No 5972, Olton Hall is better known as that star of the screen - Hogwarts Castle. Whilst Great Western purists have sleepless nights thinking about the inappropriate name and livery, there is no doubt that the locomotive is a huge draw, as we found when it visited the GWR in 2009.
- 4-6-0
- Great Western Railway. The Hall class was introduced in 1924, although the prototype, no. 4900 Saint Martin, was rebuilt from a Saint class locomotive in 1924. Olton Hall was in the first series of Halls to be built and is referred to as an 'Unmodified Hall' to distinguish it from the later series of locomotives introduced in 1944.
- 1924
- 122 tonnes
- 4000 galls
- A powerful mixed-traffic locomotive, as at home on express passenger trains as on freight work. 330 of the class were built and could be found all over the Great Western system.