A Meirionnydd steam railway is trying to go green.

The historic engines of the Talyllyn Railway, founded in 1951 and the oldest heritage railway in the world, still puff their way from Tywyn to Abergynolwyn and back on a diet of Welsh steam coal but solar power now helps out with the railway’s hefty electricity bills.

That’s thanks to a £15,000 array of 40 solar panels Denbigh-based Hafod Renewables have installed on the roof of Wharf Station and which generates 12,000 kilowatt hours of electricity a year, enough for three family homes.

The building also houses the Narrow-Gauge Railway Museum including the study of Thomas the Tank Engine author the Rev W Awdry, a regular volunteer with the Talyllyn Railway.

Stuart Williams, general manager of the railway, said: “Just because we are a heritage railway doesn’t mean everything has to be heritage and the solar system has been a great investment.

“While everyone will associate us with coal we do use a lot of electricity here and this will offset some of our carbon and as well as being good for the environment it’s also good for our budget.

“In future anything we build will have solar panels on it and as we’re hoping to build a new workshop that could be quite soon.

“We’ve been very pleased with Hafod Renewables, we like to use local suppliers and they’re from North Wales and have done a great job for us.

“They installed the system in only two days and it was running and now I can keep tabs on it from my mobile phone.”

This investment will make the Talyllyn Railway the ‘greenest’ in Wales as it continues to steam up and down its two and a half hour journey to Nant Gwernol and the old Bryneglwys Quarry and back to Tywyn Wharf where the slate would be loaded onto the mainline trains to Aberdovey harbour for shipment.