Steam Locomotives in Popular Culture
Over the years, steam locomotives have become a very popular image in representations of trains. Many toy trains based on steam locomotives are made, thereby making the image iconic with trains to children. Their popularity has led to steam locomotives being portrayed in fictional works about trains, most notably The Railway Series by the Rev W. V. Awdry and The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper. Steam locomotives have also been "stars" in many television shows about trains, such as Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends, based on characters from the books by Awdry.
There is also the Hogwarts Express from J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, which in the films is portrayed by the GWR 4900 Class 5972 Olton Hall steam engine in special Hogwarts livery. The Hogwarts Express is so popular in its own right that it is an attraction at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter section of the Universal Studios Islands of Adventure amusement park in Florida.
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“Popular culture is seductive; high culture is imperious.”
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“A steam ran small and terrible and shrill;
it was so still;
the stream ran from the oak-copse
and returned and ran
back into shadow.”
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And the prairie flowers lie low:—”
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