T is for Toy Fair 2020 Reports - Hornby - Harry Potter

After one got over the lack of catalogues on Hornby's stand this year, one's eyes were drawn to a larger diorama they had in one half of the stand, which had a little train going round-and-round!

They had to go with a rival's fort because they've never strayed far from the trackside (a few cows and a set of pylons maybe!), I don't recognise it offhand, with my Walther's' in front of me maybe, but they've mucked the walls about to fit it in the corner!

There was a flying car (Ford Anglia?) which gives a clue as to the theme! Probably also bought-in, possibly Oxford Die-cast? The train - obviously - is the Hogwarts Express, leaving from platform something-&-a-half (thirteen?), I've never read the books, never seen the filums and only heard the first section of the first book read by Steven Fry (which was very good, I was laughing out loud as the letters spilled from the chimney-breast) on Radio 4 years ago!

Round and round and round it goes, where it stops; everyone knows . . . Hogwarts academy of geeky weirdoes!

Hornby still have a lot of support for the franchise, but how long that will last is anyone's guess as I think it's fair to say the popularity of Harry Potter is on the wane, and while I understand it's kept alive with stage-plays, 'Extraordinary Beasts' and DVD boxed-sets, that will only carry it (the franchise) so far?

The Hornby Group's subsidiary brand of Corgi also have Harry Potter stuff, I don't know if it fits in with the OO-gauge compatibility of the Hornby sets, but assume it looks the part, although I'm guessing the gauge on the Corgi locomotive is 'carpet-gauge' not a scale 4 feet 1½-inches (13.17mm to 1 metre) or an actual 16.5mm between wheels? It certainly won't be powered.