A 161-YEAR-old locomotive has been polished up ready for its day in the sun this weekend.

Wantage Tramway No 5 will be brought out of her engine shed at Didcot Railway Centre on Saturday for a rare chance to see her in the open air.

At 12 noon, she will be serenaded by the Shannon Express Male Barbershop Harmony Chorus, based in Potton, where the locomotive originally ran on the Sandy and Potton Railway from 1857.

In 1877 she was sold to the Wantage Tramway and ran between Wantage Road station and the town centre for nearly 70 years.

During this time she was known as ‘Jane’ on the tramway, which closed in 1945.

A campaign was then launched to preserve the historic locomotive, and she sat on a plinth on Wantage Road station until 1965.