What Came Before the Hogwarts Express?
by Owen de Lyon The Hogwarts Express has been the subject of various essays exploring its nature and function. As has been plausibly noted elsewhere on this site, it isn’t really a steam engine, but rather a magical transportation device that mimics a Muggle equivalent in external form and function. This is consistent with the general trend in Wizard “technology,” which seems both to adapt itself to Muggle contemporary (or near-contemporary) norms and, in a certain sense, to progress to an increasing level of sophistication over time. The history of the broomstick described in Quidditch Through the Ages clearly demonstrates that, while the development of magical devices may not exactly parallel Muggle scientific progress, it certainly has been significant over recorded history. Which leads to an interesting question: how did students get to Hogwarts before the invention of the steam engine? Steam locomotion and railroads were not well-established until the nineteenth century. As an ind
