Local Kids Create Hogwarts Express

All aboard—The Hogwarts Express train has come to Severna Park.

A group of local kids have recreated the train from the Harry Potter movies and will race it in the American Visionary Art Museum's kinetic sculpture race in Baltimore on Saturday.

The annual event is a 15-mile race through Baltimore in which participants must construct an imaginative, totally human-powered work of art, designed to travel on land, though mud and over deep harbor waters.

Five Severna Park families, featuring 12 kids age 8-14 will enter their Hogwarts Express in Saturday’s race to compete mostly against adults. With help from a few parents, the kids created the train virtually from nothing.

“We just started off with a base of metal,” said Harber Carlson, 13. “Then we put on the wheels and the seats, and then we put on the pedals and stuff. Then it kind of all came together.”

The vehicle itself was built using a lot of old bicycles, Styrofoam, wood and metal. It was then painted and designed to resemble the Hogwarts Express from the Harry Potter movies.

"The design uses a mix of materials," said Madeline Viteri, 11. "We mainly used canvass but there is some wood on there. We used a lot of Sharpe, but we stuck fabric on the windows. It was a lot of painting."

On Saturday, the vehicle—crafted by kids from Folger Mckinsey, Indian Creek Severna Park Middle and high school—will go on a 15-mile trek on land and water. 

Severna Park Middle School student Saejal Warner, 12, will be one of the six people driving the train on Saturday. He said he is most worried about the water and right turns.

“We have had a problem with our front wheels when we turn right mostly,” Saejal said. “When we turn right the wheels start to give. As far as the water goes we have to be moving fast to actually steer.”

The bold project got its start when Jennifer Haber took her son, Haber, to the kinetic sculpture race. Jennifer said each year her son said he wanted to compete so she began recruiting neighbors.

“My son has been going to the race for years and wanted to do it, and I possess absolutely no skill,” Jennifer Haber said. “I invited the Warner’s, who are engineers, to go last year with my fingers crossed they would love it too and they did.”

From there a project was born. More families began to get involved and they started brainstorming and working on the Hogwarts Express in August 2012.

While some of the parents have helped with the construction of the vehicle, Jennifer Haber said the kids are really the driving force.

“We have had incredible adults that really believe in the children being the driving force and supporting it every way possible,” Jennifer Haber said. “We are in awe of this great team and what they managed to do.”

The Hogwarts Express will take off in Baltimore on Saturday, and will hopefully steer clear of any right turns.

The following kids participated in the project:

• Abby Reed, 8, Folger McKinsey
• Rachel Reed, 11, Folger McKinsey
• Will Reed, 12, Severna Park Middle
• Kyle Reed, 14, Severna Park High
• Madeline Viteri, 11, Severna Park Middle
• Lucy Fasick, 8, Folger McKinsey
• Kaylin LaFleche, 11 Folger McKinsey
• Joseph LaFleche, 13, Severna Park Middle
• Saejal Warner, 12, Severna Park Middle
• Sheanan Warner, 13, Severna Park Middle
• Lauren Carlson, 11, Severna Park Middle
• Haber Carlson, 13,  Indian Creek School