Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have gained significant attention in recent years. In railways, safeguarding the continuous operation of rail traffic entails maintenance of the rails, sleepers and gravel beds, design and construction of extension works and monitoring of the condition of railway bridges, among many other activities. Traditional methods of manual ground surveys are slow, time-consuming, unsafe and interfere with the train timetables, causing delays and dissatisfied travelers, in addition to being expensive in the long-term. An alternative geodata acquisition technology that does not interfere with railway operations is aerial surveillance using UAVs. They provide the benefits of reduction in cost, increased speed of output delivery and improved safety.