Hogwarts Express: Mysterious 'Harry Potter train' bewitches Dublin rail passengers

Rail passengers were spellbound by a mysterious message on the information boards at one of Dublin's busiest train stations on Wednesday evening.

Commuters were confronted with departure times for the Hogwarts Express, the fictional train from the children's book series, Harry Potter.

However, no ordinary mortal could get on board the magical mystery ride at Heuston station.

It was a private service, chartered by students from Dublin's Trinity College.

About 870 students, many dressed as witches, wizards and other characters from the best-selling novels, boarded the sold-out service.

Most had no idea about their final destination.

The event was organised by social and drama clubs within the college, Trinity Ents and Players, in conjunction with Irish Rail (Iarnród Éireann).

The Hogwarts Express passengers were told only that the trains would transport them "to a secret location for a night of fun and dancing".

"House points will be awarded for exceptional behaviour, costumes as well as spell and potion making," the organisers said.

Irish Rail's corporate communications manager, Barry Kenny, said it was the third time his company had teamed up with Trinity students for specially themed journeys and each had been very successful.

"We were happy to help them create a little bit of Hogwarts at Heuston," Mr Kenny told BBC News NI.

He added that the event brought a "great atmosphere" to the station, and even commuters who were not involved in the mystery train rides got a "buzz" out of watching all that was going on.

One commuter, who works for a bank in Dublin city centre, was making her usual way home through the station when she spotted the unusual signs.

She tweeted a photo of the departures board, saying: "My Irish Rail train home is leaving between two #Hogwarts expresses. Hope I don't get hit by some random spell."

She later told the BBC that she realised what was happening when she saw lots of young people in "high spirits" dressed as Potter characters.

"It sounded fun, I hope they enjoyed themselves," she said.

But not everyone got the references.

One Trinity drama student tweeted: "There are so many confused commuters in Heuston station right now."

Harry Potter famously had to wait at Platform 9¾ for the train that took him to Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry.

Despite a cardboard sign, Trinity students would not have been surprised to find out that no such platform really exists at Heuston.

However, in a confusing co-incidence, the station's real Platform 9 is missing altogether.

Mr Kenny explained that Heuston's permanent platforms are numbered 1 to 8, but several years ago the station's bosses created another temporary platform while a major upgrade was taking place.

This temporary arrangement allowed trains to be diverted away from the works and meant Irish Rail did not have to cancel services.

However, because the extra platform was quite some distance from the others, it was called Platform 10, in order to distinguish its position from the rest.

So there was no real secret platform for the Potter fans, but what about their secret destination?

The two express trains took the students for a bewitching night in Limerick city, with the last return train arriving back in Heuston at 05:00 local time on Thursday.

Irish Rail said despite the late hour, the Hogwarts pupils were well behaved and there were no detentions.

"I'm sure some of them continued the party, while others had a sleep," Mr Kenny said.