Mid Wales Express and Sir Haydn

The Mid Wales Express is on tour with star attraction ‘Sir Haydn’, a Talyllyn Railway locomotive, the aim being to promote Wales as an ideal location for industry and tourism.

The Mid Wales Express Exhibition Train, set in motion by the Development Board for Rural Wales, visits stations in England during April 1984, promoting mid Wales as an ideal location for both industry and tourism. It is assisted by an accompanying star attraction: the locomotive ‘Sir Haydn’, owned by the Talyllyn Railway Preservation Society, which society is honoured at a stop in Euston station (30/4/1984) by the naming of an electric locomotive [86/258] ‘Talyllyn’.

The Mid Wales Express’s official itinerary, starting on April 15th 1984, with a day at each station, was Birmingham International, London Euston, Birmingham Moor Street, Dudley, Watford Junction, Hertford, Colchester St Botolphs, Windsor & Eton Riverside (two days), Twickenham, Oxford, Bristol, Southampton, Portsmouth, Bromley North, London Euston, finishing on May 1st at Brighton. It was David Mitchell, the Secretary of State for Transport, who unveiled the locomotive ‘Talyllyn’ at Euston, in honour of what was the world’s first railway preservation society.