After successfully building and exhibiting "Sunderland Corporation Tramways", we decided to build "Sunderland District Tramways". This is to stand to the right (viewed from the front) of "Sunderland Corporation Tramways", as the termini of the two systems at Grangetown were for many years only a few yards apart before finally being joined in 1921. It had to be the same size as the first (48" by 18"), it still had to run Corgi 4 wheeled trams, have live overhead and automatic control. It also had to be a complete scene where the trams were a small but vital part of the whole.

Sunderland District Electric Tramways Ltd. (S D T) was opened on 10th June 1905 as a single track with passing loops. Perhaps because it was a rural tramway it never carried enough passengers, nor was it properly funded and as a result had a chequered history until it eventually converted to running motorbuses on 12th July 1925 as the Sunderland District Transport Company Ltd.