A STEAM locomotive built in Swindon's GWR Works became a big-screen star when Warner Brothers transformed it into the Hogwarts Express.

The Hall-class locomotive GWR 5972, known as Olton Hall, was built in April 1937.

After being left to rot in a Welsh scrapyard for decades, it was restored to its former glory and given a magical makeover.

Elaine Arthurs, assistant curator for the STEAM Museum, said: "The fact that they chose a GWR locomotive that was built in Swindon to be in such a popular film franchise is just brilliant.

"It's a great feat of engineering and seeing it on the big screen evoked a lot of nostalgia, it has a great history.

"The Hall-class locomotives were mainly used on passenger routes, which is why it's used to take Harry and his friends to Hogwarts in the films.

"Some Harry Potter fans might not even realise that it's a real working locomotive.

"The Hall Class locomotives were built here between 1928 and 1950 - there are still 11 in preservation.

"The huge GWR Works made three locomotives a week.

"The Hall Class ones were not as iconic as the King Class ones, but they were strong and steady and reliable."

They may not have been iconic back in the '30s but they certainly are now.

Millions of people who grew up reading the Harry Potter books have seen it play a prominent part in every instalment of the multi-billion-dollar franchise.

Thousands visit its current Herefordshire home in Warner Brothers Studios every year.

Olton Hall regularly travelled on one of Great Western Railway's mainline routes to and from London Paddington.

As steam locomotives were phased out during the 1960s, it ended up in a South Wales scrapyard near Barry.

The owner of West Coast Railways bought it from the scrapyard in 1981 and a team of dedicated volunteers worked for 16 years to restore it.

It was first re-steamed in 1997, the same year that the first Harry Potter book was published - surely a sign of things to come.

Film producers searched high and low for an authentic steam engine to bring the Hogwarts Express from the page to the screen, and old Olton Hall was just what they were looking for.