‘Hogwarts Express’ delivers magical proposal for Sophie
EVEN Hogwarts headmaster Professor Dumbledore could not have made it a more magical moment for one young couple who got engaged recently with a little help from the The Jacobite steam train.
Immortalised as the ‘Hogwarts Express’ in the Harry Potter movies, a trip on the train had long been on Sophie Irwin’s bucket list.
So it was a dream come true for Sophie when her boyfriend suggested visiting Glenfinnan’s famous viaduct to see The Jacobite.
A big Harry Potter fan, Sophie has always loved the romance of travelling by steam after reading Enid Blyton’s books and visiting steam train railways in England.
But little did the London hospital anaesthetist know that her partner, Graeme Tait, had a magical railway-themed surprise in store for their visit to the viaduct in October.
Sophie and Graeme, a radiographer from Earlston in the Scottish Borders, started dating in 2015 after meeting at Frimley Park Hospital in Surrey.
The couple were on a touring holiday of the Highlands and stopped off in Fort William with a view to enjoying a trip aboard The Jacobite.
Sophie told the Lochaber Times it had been Graeme who suggested that the day before getting on the train they should watch it cross the viaduct.
Sophie took up the story: ‘We had arrived with plenty of time to find the right spot to take photos. Graeme seemed to be acting a little bit odd and wasn’t smiling naturally for the photos – he must have been nervous!
‘The train then signalled its arrival onto the viaduct with a sound of its horn and went very slowly across the viaduct. Prior to the train’s arrival, Graeme asked what I thought the front of the train would say. I said it would say The Jacobite, like normal.’
But much to Sophie’s surprise, there was a special message on the head plate attached to the front of The Jacobite’s boiler.
Instead of it bearing the locomotive’s name, it bore Graeme’s proposal: ‘Sophie Marry Me’.
Sophie continued: ‘I turned around to find Graeme on one knee with a beautiful ring. The passengers on the train were hanging out the windows shouting congratulations. They had made an announcement on
Sophie and Graeme with the specially commissioned locomotive name plate.
the train just before it passed us.’ The special plate stayed on the locomotive all the way to Mallaig and back to Fort William.
And on the following day’s trip on The Jacobite, the couple were presented with the name plate which Graeme had had secretly commissioned from a company in Yorkshire with the help of West Coast Railways which operates The Jacobite.
Two months on, this happy tale has a mystery that still needs solved, as Sophie explained: ‘Prior to boarding the train, we were photos.
‘There had been a professional photographer on the line and he had noticed the special head board. He managed to take some spectacular photos of the train on the viaduct and going along the line.
‘He printed them and handed them to Florence [Florence MacLean from West Coast Railways, who had helped Graeme arrange the engagement surprise] on the morning of the train’s departure.
‘He left his name, Bernie, and a contact number. Unfortunately presented with some the number doesn’t work and we have tried a variety of number combinations. It appears to have Fort William area code.
‘We were wondering if the Lochaber Times might be able to help us find our photographer, as we want to say a massive thank you to him for the photos which we will cherish forever. We also want to get a digital copy of the photos.’
So if anyone can help us track down Bernie the photographer for Sophie and Graeme, please let us know at fort@obantimes. co.uk and we will pass on contact details.