NE DEMU were delighted to be asked to attend the Tyne & Wear Metro Open Day to celebrate 25 years of the system. This exhibition saw Round Tree Sidings appear in its new form with the cassettes long sent to Thompsons of Stockton and 2 new fiddle yard boards now constructed. The layout is now 16ft long and will continue to evolve over the coming months before appear at the Blyth show in November

***Updated 28.11.05***

The Metro cars on Round Trees Sidings are Dave Alexander white metal kits powered by Tenshodo motor bogies with a 25mm wheelbase and 10mm wheels. Paints are by Railmatch and transfers by Fox

The indusrial loco belongs to Dave Thornton, although it is not much use to him now that it has an EM tenshodo mechanism!
All other locos are owned by Lee Davis. They are mainly Lima, with a thorough clean of the motor and drive chain, good running in, extra pickups and Ultrascale Wheels.
The locos have been detailed in the bufferbeam area by Lee. Alan has added the "goalposts" for the Spratt and Winkle couplings and they were weathered by Trevor Smith.

The group met about once a month at first, with individuals working on various aspects at home and then getting together to make sure everything fit and worked. As Showcase drew close, we met regularly at Alan's - (he has no partner to tell him to tidy up and stop making a mess!) where the layout could be left assembled.
Most of the benchwork and legs were tasked to Dave Anderson. He is DEMU secretary and was once heard to comment that he had a GCSE in woodwork, so who better to make the legs and boards?

The baseboards and supporting legs were constructed by David Anderson in his garage.
They were first assemled in the loft at the home of Lee Davis.
A fellow modeller used Templot to design the pointwork. The pointwork geometry is complex to fit our gently sweeping curves into the cassettes we had planned for each end of the layout. Lee hand built the point work from flatbottom rail soldered to copperclad sleepers lightly glued to the Templot plan which in turn had been glued to a piece of glass.
Plain track was manufactured from Exactoscale sleepers and flatbottom rail. The time consuming task of sliding the sleepers on to the rail was completed by Roland Maddison.
The track was laid on the boards during one evening in July 2004 - 11 months before DEMU Showcase 2005.
The boards were taken one at a time to the home of Trevor Smith where Sommerfeld catenary was added to the two Metro tracks. The masts were positioned so that all contact wires ran in straight lines.

***Updated 28.11.05***

A journey from Monkseaton Metro station to Newcastle Airport Metro station was used to photograph structures and details to help with creating the atmosphere on Round Trees Sidings.
Extensive foliage and new buildings make it impossible to use the same vantage points as Tim harris in the 1980s.

The Metro cars are one of the few vehicles in the UK where passengers can obtain a "drivers eye" view of the track ahead.

A brief photographic survey of Bankfoot Station in October 2005 is also included to allow comparison with the 1980s shots and also to obtain some reference information as part of potentially modelling a representation of this terminus.

This series of pictures are part of the inspiration for our layout "Round Tree Sidings". Taken by Tim Harris, between 1983 and 1985, and reproduced with his permission. These photographs show the trip workings to the Rowntree's complex at Coxlodge and the ICI site at Callerton.

DEMU (Diesel and Electric Modellers United) is a nationwide society for railway modellers of the post-modernisation plan era British railway scene. (see www.demu.co.uk) In 2003 the first area group was formed for North East DEMU modellers to share experiences, practices and learn from each other. The first opportunity to see a members layout was on 28th May 2003 when the NE DEMU group visited Dave Thornton's house and his magnificent layout, photographed stock is courtesy of Dave Thornton, Lee Davies and Trevor Smith.