Bleary-eyed commuters are never at their best first thing. Understandable enough.

But you would have thought they might just twig the fact the steam train hissing on Platform 3 wasn't the mainline service to London.

Not even the old-fashioned carriages - used in the Harry Potter movies - have been giving the game away, however.

York Station staff have been regularly boarding the Scarborough Spa Express steam service - which immediately precedes the Kings Cross train - to tell bemused commuters if they don't want to end up at Hogwarts, they had better get off.

Who said the glory days of steam travel were over?

Updated: 10:53 Monday, August 11, 2003