Stopping a train in platform 9 and 3/4

[MindlesssMin]

I am researching UK trains for a Harry Potter fanfiction that I am planning on writing and would appreciate this forum's input. This is my first post, so if this is not the right place than please let me know. Anyway, here's the setup:

An LNER train from Edinburgh (an Class 801 Azuma) loses all brake and engine control while passing New Southgate. The driver radios to dispatch and discovers that all platforms at King's Cross and St. Pancras are full (the train would have to wait for an opening under normal circumstances). Knowing that everyone onboard and in the station would perish, the dispatcher re-routes the train to Platform 9 3/4, which he discovered several years prior and never told anyone about. His action leads to the safe stoppage of the train without any major injuries or deaths (the impact is violent but the driver evacuated the cab and the first two carriages).

I would prefer that magic not be involved in the stopping of the train beyond the existence of the hidden platform, if possible. Would a standard King's Cross buffer stop be able to stop the train, and if not, than what actions could the driver and/or dispatch use to slow the train down?

Thanks for your help.

 

[30907]

A total brake failure (including emergency systems) would mean the train coasting at high speed (it's downhill as I suspect you know). The buffer stops are only capable of halting a much slower train, so the collision would be disastrous.
Google Moorgate 1975
The driver could do very little apart from an emergency call, and the signaller's (not dispatcher over here BTW) best move would be to route the train onto a little-used through route so it could derail on a curve somewhere less unsafe. (I'm thinking Canonbury if anyone is wondering).
Of course, what's to say that Platform 9 3/4 isn't a through platform with an underground connection to Beauxbatons or Durmstrang...

 

[Class15]

You could say that 9 and 3/4 has some ultra-strong buffer?

 

[zwk500]

I suspect the most lore-friendly explanation is that when Platform 9 3/4s was constructed, somebody took the precaution of casting an extra-strong cushioning charm on it...

 

[Peter Sarf]

I think you will find that platform 9 3/4 is not underground. Has anyone ever looked up above their head ?. Well it is there up above the Western wall of the twin arched trainshed. To get there a train has to be doing quite a speed and needless to say will have almost ground to a halt due to gravity by the time it occupies said platform. Quite mundane really. Furthermore the train knew what it was doing.

 

[MarkyT]

Of course, what's to say that Platform 9 3/4 isn't a through platform with an underground connection to Beauxbatons or Durmstrang...

Maybe the train would enter an endless underground Mobius strip it can never escape from, like the plot of 'A Subway Named Mobius', a 1950 science fiction short story by American astronomer Armin Joseph Deutsch.

 

[EyeKay]

Maybe the train would enter an endless underground Mobius strip it can never escape from,

Sounds like the Glasgow subway

 

[Clarence Yard]

The signaller would divert it onto the Canonbury Curve via the Up Slow and it would swing off towards Stratford or alternatively it would be diverted onto the North London incline via the Up Slow.

 

[Railcar]

The signaller could divert it on the the Up Slows at Finsbury Park, then through the Canal Tunnel, the Core, and ahead after Blackfriars to use up any kinetic energy running the Sutton Loop (at last, a use for the Sutton Loop!) (see other Sutton Loop threads)

 

[Class15]

The signaller would divert it onto the Canonbury Curve via the Up Slow and it would swing off towards Stratford or alternatively it would be diverted onto the North London incline via the Up Slow.

The signaller could divert it on the the Up Slows at Finsbury Park, then through the Canal Tunnel, the Core, and ahead after Blackfriars to use up any kinetic energy running the Sutton Loop (at last, a use for the Sutton Loop!) (see other Sutton Loop threads)

Yeah but where’s the fun in that?

 

[MarkyT]

The signaller could divert it on the the Up Slows at Finsbury Park, then through the Canal Tunnel, the Core, and ahead after Blackfriars to use up any kinetic energy running the Sutton Loop (at last, a use for the Sutton Loop!) (see other Sutton Loop threads)

An interesting handover from York to Three Bridges...The wall of death would definitely absorb some energy!

 

[Sorcerer]

Given all the rather huge discrepancies surrounding the lore with the Hogwarts Express and Platform Nine and Three Quarters, I think having a set of magical buffers that could somehow stop a speeding Azuma would quite possibly be the most realistic outcome in this scenario. Either that or some kind of magical enchantments that can stop a runaway train before a major accident. I know you wanted non-magical means but realistically when the world is so heavily built on magic as that of Harry Potter it's more believable than a regular set of buffers that can somehow stop a speeding Azuma with no injuries which cannot be made realistically believable at all.

 

[99009]

The only thing I can come up with here that would make sense (without using magic to stop the train) is that the LNER Azuma gets routed by the signaller (dispatcher for you) into Platform 9 3/4's. Because no one knows what the platform looks like everyone, including the driver, expects platform 9 3/4's to be a terminus and to see a buffer stop. Everyone is nervous and the train isn't slowing down as much as hoped, creating some suspense. Just when they expect the worst, even after being routed into Platform 9 3/4's due to the train not slowing down enough, what they (driver, guard and passengers) actually see is that it's a through-platform and not a terminus and that the line continues on to somewhere else. Where the line goes to would be up to you, the only things I could think of that are Harry Potter related are a) Hogwarts or b) a magical link to Mallaig in Scotland where after some time and the train travelling slower you eventually reach Glenfinnan Viaduct.

Good luck with your fanfiction! Any further questions please ask and also let us know where we can read it once you've written it.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

You could say that 9 and 3/4 has some ultra-strong buffer?

Strong it what sense, though? You'd want your buffers to absorb the energy from the collision by sliding backwards- possibly all the way into the concourse, otherwise you're just introducing the unstoppable force to an immovable object and turning everyone on board into chunky marinara sauce...

Though if it ends up coming to a stop in the (secret magical) concourse behind P9.75, Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder could then escape in a conveniently-placed small sports car... though I may be mixing up my movie references!

 

[MindlesssMin]

Good luck with your fanfiction! Any further questions please ask and also let us know where we can read it once you've written it.

You can find it here:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/65339500

 

[Trainguy34]

Oh wow, that's looking really good!