A steam railway in the Yorkshire Dales is facing the trebling of its energy bills – and plans to install 1,000 solar panels on its engine sheds to avoid the price hike.

The Embsay and Bolton Abbey Steam Railway’s electricity bill is forecast to rise from £30,000 to £90,000 – which would severely impact on other operating costs on the 134-year-old line.

Managers have hired drone experts from Networx3 UAV to survey the engine sheds ahead of the installation of solar panels to allow the railway to generate its own power – meaning bills could eventually drop to zero.

It took commercial drone pilot Ian Ashworth less than an hour to conclude that the project will be possible.

Pictured the Illingworth locomotive, which used to run from Pateley Bridge to Lofthouse. It took over 10 years to restore

Mr Ashworth said: “Our ‘eye in the sky’ drone footage has meant there’s no need for scaffolding and cherry pickers to access the roofs and survey them - that’s a big saving in terms of time and cost. Drones can get to places which are awkward, inaccessible and expensive to reach and beam back live video of what they find to our state-of-the-art mobile drone control centre vehicle allowing clients to direct the flight in real time.”

Green energy experts Squirrel Energy will be installing the solar panels later this year.

Managing director David Heys said: “We were able to give a definitive answer of yes to the solar panels on the roof thanks to the Networx3 UAV drone.

“We managed to do a comprehensive survey in under an hour - something that would have usually taken a couple of days with a visual inspection by a surveyor clipped to a cherry picker working at height and all the safety risks that come with that.

Carriage and wagon manager Aaron Marsden by the historic buffet car, the British Railways express which ran non-stop from London to Edinburgh from 1953 (marking the Queen's Coronation) to 1963 now rehomed at the Embsay and Bolton Abbey Steam Railway in the Yorkshire Dales

Embsay & Bolton Abbey Steam Railway director Malcolm Harrison said: “We have all this roof space and so it’s an opportunity for us to reduce our carbon footprint at a time when are energy costs are about to go through the roof as well.

“We have no end of things we can spend the money we save on including carriage refurbishment and an upgrade on our mess room.

“Using the drone was modern technology meeting old fashioned steam transport.”

Embsay and Bolton Abbey Steam Railway to install 1,000 solar panels on engine sheds to avoid £90,000 electricity bill