West Lancs Light Railway new installations reduce carbon footprint and future energy bills

Thanks to a 75% grant awarded by the Lancashire Environmental Fund, the West Lancashire Light Railway Trust is delighted to announce that a significant solar photovoltaic (PV) and battery storage system has been installed at the heritage railway, based in Hesketh Bank, near Preston.

The £18,000 scheme has provided 31x 600W PV panels and a 14kW battery solution, which will reduce the Charitable Trust’s carbon footprint and future electricity bills.

The heritage railway is a small carbon user, burning around 4 tonnes of high-quality steam coal per year, providing short steam train rides in the village of Hesketh Bank, demonstrating the use of narrow-gauge steam locomotives, once employed in industries such as mining and quarrying. The new PV installation is forecast to reduce the organisation’s total carbon footprint by at least 25%. Additional energy-saving measures are also in progress, such as replacing old fluorescent lighting with LED lights. The railway also maintains and runs through some pleasant woodland, offering excellent habitat for wildlife including Great Crested Newts, bats, hedgehogs, and birds.

Chairman of the Trust, Mike Spall, reported that “ The West Lancashire Light Railway Trust is very grateful to the Lancashire Environmental Fund for their assistance with this important project, which may not have happened without their support. Operating our heritage railway is important for our cultural and educational needs, but so too is our need to protect our environmental future. This project will significantly reduce our carbon footprint and our future energy bill, allowing us to help protect our environment and invest future savings into our heritage collection and visitor attraction. It’s very interesting seeing the latest green environmental technologies working alongside our 120-year-old steam locomotives.”

Background

The West Lancashire Light Railway Trust is a fully volunteer-run organisation that operates a short, two-foot gauge steam railway in the village of Hesketh Bank. The railway was founded in 1967 by a group of local schoolboys. Primarily operating on Sundays and bank holidays, the railway transports approximately 10,000 passengers each year. Currently, the railway’s collection includes five steam locomotives and 20 petrol, diesel, and electric locomotives, some of which previously worked in industry in West Lancashire. The railway is always looking for new volunteers, with many different roles, skilled and unskilled to fill. Come down for a chat on a Sunday or Thursday.

The West Lancashire Light Railway is a proud member of the Heritage Railway Association, a trade organisation that represents heritage railways across the UK and Ireland. Heritage railways are a major tourist attraction in the UK, attracting 13 million visitors each year as part of a £600 million tourism industry. The West Lancashire Light Railway plays a small but nonetheless important role in this industry and the story of railways.

Not all coals are equal. Heritage Railways use high-quality coals, now sadly not produced in the UK. Around 30,000 tonnes of coal are used on UK heritage railways each year. This compares to 60,000 tonnes of charcoal used in barbecues. Many heritage railways, such as the West Lancashire Light Railway, are investing in green technology to reduce their carbon impact, while telling the important story of their engineering and heritage.

The Lancashire Environmental Fund (LEF) is a partnership between SUEZ Recycling and Recovery UK Ltd, Lancashire County Council, The Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside and Community Futures.  

​Over the last 25 years, Lancashire Environmental Fund is proud to have supported over 1,200 projects in Lancashire with over £30 million in funding. The money we have distributed has all come from Landfill tax, the aim of which is to encourage alternative and more environmentally friendly methods of disposing of our waste, rather than sending it to landfill. 

The point has now come where the amount of waste sent to landfill in Lancashire has reduced to such an extent that the money we receive for distribution to projects is no longer sufficient to make the operation of the Fund viable.

Sadly, this fund is forecast to close in June 2026

Installation

The above system was expertly installed by Go Green Solar Group Ltd, Over Kellet, Lancaster. LA6 1DN