TALYLLYN Railway’s iconic Sir Haydn locomotive has returned to service after an overhaul in Aberystwyth.

There was great excitement at the Talyllyn Railway on Thursday when locomotive No 3 Sir Haydn returned to the railway after extensive work at the Vale of Rheidol Railway’s workshops.

The locomotive, which was originally built in 1878 for the Corris Railway, has been out of service since 2012, although it did undertake a nationwide publicity tour for the railway as a static exhibit between 2013 and 2015.

It was last seen in public on Talyllyn rails in July 2015 when it made a surprise appearance at the railway’s 150th party, although again it was not in steam.

Then in October 2015 it was moved to the Vale of Rheidol to be overhauled in stages, the work proving to be more extensive than originally hoped.

Sir Haydn has returned to the Talyllyn to begin testing and trials, which cannot be carried out at the Vale of Rheidol workshops, before being formally handed back to the Talyllyn Railway.

The overhaul has been paid for in part by a special fund, which has raised over £100,000 so far.

It is planned that the locomotive will be back in full service on the railway from mid May.

At this point, the railway will have all six of its steam locomotives available for traffic, although not for long as locomotive No 1 Talyllyn will be withdrawn from traffic on Monday, 18 June, to begin an overhaul of its own.

This will be undertaken in Talyllyn Railway’s own workshops.