This site was first published on 16th April 2008 and has been updated on the dates below. I try to update the site for the first day of the month, but I do not update every month as there may be nothing to add, and I do extra updates, as required, at other times. To read this page from the beginning click here.

Work on Ravenscar Pier is progressing and I have updated the blog to reflect this. It will be ready for display at the Perth Green MRC Exhibition at Jarrow on the 17 / 18 th March.

I have added an extra page entitled Construction & Operation to the Ravenscar Pier menu which, as it says, gives a brief description of the tramway construction and its operation.

The TramCam is finally finished and working thanks to some assistance from Jon Laws who has modified the camera and fitted it to my Brill tram. More details have been added to the Foxwood Park blog.

I have finally decided to attempt to build a model of the Sunderland Duistrict Tramways only works car. It was a Track Sweeper / Snowbroom supplied in 1906 by Brush of Loughborough. The period postcard below shows the car in Front Street, Hetton-le-Hole.

If I am successful it will be completed in time for, and launched into service at, the Beamish Model Tramway Exhibition in April when it will join the District running fleet. At that time I plan to add a new page to the Sunderland District menu describing how the model was built. The Ravenscar Pier blog has been updated with two photographs added.

My Hit Counter logged that two visitors to this site had been directed to the Error Page because of faulty links. One was on the Foxwood Park Trams, Trains and Townscape page and the other on the Sunderland District Construction and Operation page Both links have now been corrected.

When I had completed the 'Motorise a Feltham' page I decided that the next priority was to prepare a 'Motorise a Horsfield' page. I asked David Voice if I could use the Horsfield chapter from his book entitled 'More Modelling in '00' Gauge'. Fortunately David readily agreed and has updated the text, which can be found here. Pages describing how to motorise the Matchbox Y15 and the Lledo trams will follow at some time in the future.

Mark Bliss and I have been researching the possibility of automatic tram stops using the cut rails method for Two-rail wired track. The initial results using N gauge bogie trams look very promising and the use of 4-wheel trams needs to be investiaged. I have prepared a new page describing our findings and including a YouTube video clip showing 3 trams running on Mark's track. If you need any further information, please use the Contact page.

As I will be featuring at least one more new model tramway over the next few months, and another one or two in the future, I have redesigned the home page making it shorter, simplified the main menu and moved all of the model tramways to a new page. As part of the changes the new home page has a slideshow with images from each of the model trmways featured.

As I have been receiving more spam emails from the 'Contact' page recently, I have added another box which needs an access code entering before submitting the message. This code is, for the time being, on the 'Contact' page next to the box, but may need to be moved to a different page at some time in the future.

After I received a question about motorising the OOC Feltham tram I decided that preparation of a new page on this subject had become very urgent. With the assistance of Alan Kirkman, who supplied the photographs and the experience, I have prepared the new page which has been added to the now re-named 'Motorising Diecast Trams' sub-menu.

More progress has been made on Ravenscar Pier and the Blog has been updated accordingly. The Your Questions Answered page has also had some additions made to it.

As I am involved in the organisation of the Beamish Model Tramway Exhibition, I have added a new page giving more details of the event which will be part of the 'Great North Steam Fair' in April 2012.

It is available from the Main Menu (see left) or the 'Where to See Us' page. Any further news of the Exhibition will be shown on this new page.

Some additional work has been done on Ravenscar Pier and it is described in the Blog which has been updated. Due to family commitmentss it is unlikely that there will be an update in September. Monthly updates should resume on October 1st.

The Ravenscar Pier Blog has been updated with the progress made this month. Due to impending family commitments, holidays and an exhibition it is unlikely that there will be an update in July.

The Foxwood Park Blog has again been updated with some more repairs, the Ravenscar Pier Blog has been updated with the progress made this month, and the 'Where to see Us' page has had some additions made covering new exhibitions in 2011.

Since the March update I have added my own Error 404 page which you will see if a page is not available. This outlines some of the reasons why a page may not be available and provides a link to the Home page.

Both the Foxwood Park and Ravenscar Pier Blogs have been updated with the progress made this month.

I am now able to give more details of our new Tramway which we have been working on occasionally as time has permitted. It is to be called Ravenscar Pier and as you can imagine from the name, it has a pier with a narrow gauge tramway. There are more details on the 'Background' and 'Construction Blog' pages.

Peter Rose has uploaded another video to YouTube showing 4 trams running and controlled by the automatic tram stops. I have added a link to the Wearmouth Video Gallery.

Foxwood Park has been having some pre-season repairs carried out and one new mini scene has been added in the events field. More details are in the Blog.

For this month I am pleased to be able to add 'Wearmouth', a Tramway layout in 4mm scale, which is the work of Peter Rose, another North East modeller and T.L.R.S. member.

This is the first model tramway built by Peter and is described in the usual format with the addition of photos, taken during its construction, in the text. Click on the link above or follow the menus for a full description, photo and video galleries.

I have added some more questions to the 'Your Questions Answered' page. This will be an ongoing process as I receive and answer more quetions about Tramway Modelling.

As a result of some recent questions from the 'Contact' page I have added a page entitled 'Your Questions Answered' to the main menu. Any future questions and the answers will be added to this page.

During the recent snow, I have been unable to get out much so some thought has been given to our next model tramway. I have liked the idea of a pier tramway for some time so have built the entrance kiosks and pier head cafe. A new entry on the main menu and some new pages will follow soon, so watch this space!

The 'Where to see Us' page has been updated with some new exhibition bookings for 2011 and 2012.

I am delighted to announce that we had our 10,000th visitor today December 19th. I would like to thank YOU, our visitors, for your continuing interest and my website widow Margaret for her continuing patience.

This will be the last ever mention of visitor numbers, but I do think that 10,000 is a significant milestone after less than 3 years online.

As my daughters are both slightly dyslexic, they have indicated that the white background on my pages makes reading them dificult. Because of this I have changed the background colour to cream which should improve the site for other readers as well.

Sealane built by George Wilkinson won the award for the Most Entertaining Layout as voted by the visitors to the Tyneside Model Railway Exhibition in November. I have added a photograph of the trophy to the Sealane Gallery.

New this month is an extra page about Gordon Douglas entitled 'Some Memories of Gordon' written by David Innes who was, for a time, one of Gordon's assistants when he operated his trams.

The Foxwood Park Blog has been updated with the recent changes made. The 'Building the Windmill' page has been improved by adding a paragraph covering the construction and fitting of the outer wall instead of it being part of the finishing instructions.

As a result of an enquiry from the 'Contact' page, I have produced a schematic drawing for preventing collisions at a 90° (or diamond) crossing. I have added it to the Single Stops page of the Automatic Tram Stops section. I have also renamed these pages 'Single Stops' and 'Linked Stops' as these titles more accurately describe the content of the pages.

My apologies for the late update this month, this was due to family commitments. The next update should be back on schedule, on the First day of the December.

George Wilkinson has uploaded a new video to YouTube. I have added a link to it to the Sealane Video Gallery. Due to circumstances beyond my control the next update will be on November 6th.

Sorry for the delayed update, but we have just returned from the Blackpool Celebrations. Some progress was made on the TramCam before we left and is described on the Foxwood Park Blog.

I have started a project to show a tram drivers view of Foxwood Park, using a tiny camera, on a small screen when it is being exhibited. Some details and photographs have been added to the Blog with more to follow as work progresses.

George Wilkinson has sent me some more photographs of Sealane which I have added to the Photo Gallery since the last update. I have also added a link to George's first YouTube video showing Sealane to the Video Gallery.

George Wilkinson has been invited to exhibit Sealane at Perth Green Model Railway Exhibition in March 2011, so anyone attending will see Sealane and Foxwood Park at the same event. This has been added to the 'Where to see Us' page.

George Wilkinson has been invited to exhibit Sealane at the Model Railway Weekend, Nottingham Transport Heritage Centre, Mere Way, Ruddington, Notts, NG11 6NX on 21 / 22 August. This has been added to the 'Where to see Us' page.

As a result of a misunderstanding the IRDOT explanation in the Railway Modeller Foxwood Park feature was incorrect and it has highlighted the shortcomings on the 'Construction & Automation' page. I have rewritten the paragraphs concerned to make them easier to understand.

Having checked my hit counter statistics, it does appear that most people now view at either 1280 x 1024 or 1024 x 768 pixels, I have redesigned the whole site to suit these higher resolutions. This change has allowed me to increase the size of all of the images used (diagrams and photographs), but the text size remains unchanged.

For the June update I have re-written the 'Motoridse a Corgi 4-wheel Tram' page so that the photographs are included in the page, instead of having them in a separate gallery. In addition I have added a page describing how to motorise the Corgi Balloon and Railcoach trams courtesy of Len Squance and his Blackpool in the Box website. I am most grateful to Len for allowing me to add this page. I am hoping to prepare a new page describing how to motorise the Corgi Feltham and perhaps even the EFE Horsfield at some point in the future.

As the website has been live for two years I have introduced a fresh look with a new menu style, applied to both side and gallery photo menus and to all pages, although the site still has the same basic structure.

I have added a Contact form on the Contact page where you can enter your comments, some extra video clips in the Foxwood Park Video Gallery and an additional links page where you can find the sites I have used when developing this website.

The April update features a new page from George Wilkinson where he describes the building of his new Sunderland Car No. 26.

We have been invited to exhibit Foxwood Park at South Shields Model Bus 2010 and at Perth Green Model Railway Exhibition in 2011. Full details are on the 'Where to see Us' page.

For the March update I have been researching Frank Charlton who was a long time friend and helper of Gordon Douglas. I have met June, one of Franks daughters and have found amongst his collection a photograph of single deck model No. 26, an unknown model.

I have received from Gordons family some recent photographs of No. 98, another unknown model. I have added images of both of these models to the photo gallery. All of the models I have located are in safe hands and other than No. 50, there do not appear to be any more of Gordons trams to be found.

As a result of the new information received, I have split the Gordon Douglas page, so there is now one about Gordon (and Frank) and one about the trams and track, and there are replacement and additional images added to the photo gallery.

I am delighted to announce that on February 23rd 2010 our website passed the milestone of 5,000 visitors. When I published www.gordonstrams.net to the Web in April 2008 I was hoping for 100 visitors a month, but it got almost double that in the first year!

I would like to thank my website widow Margaret, and all the other people who have helped me, with encouragement, information and photographs, to build the website to its present size.

Finally I must thank YOU, our visitors, as without your interest there would have been little reason to develop it, and I hope that it has been of some help with your tramway modelling.

I have added a new link called 'Where to see Us' on the main menu. It is to a page which has all of our future exhibition bookings in one place. I hope it will be useful.

For the February update I have added the new page entitled 'Building the Windmill' to the Foxwood Park menu. This page has a full description of the windmill construction illustrated by the photographs used in the construction blog and two new diagrams to show how the motorising was achieved.

I have just received an addition to the tram fleet in the shape of Gateshead No. 77 (ex Newcastle No. 52). The Foxwood Park Photo Gallery and Blog have been updated to include this new tram.

George Wilkinson has sent me a photo of Sunderland No 26, the tram he has just finished building, As the trams in all of the galleries are shown in numerical order, I have added it as the first image in the Sealane Photo Gallery and moved the others back to suit. He is going to write a description, with photographs, of the construction of No. 26 to be included in a future update.

George Wilkinson has been invited to exhibit "Sealane" at Nottingham Model Railway Exhibition in March. Details can be found in the Selane exhibition diary.

We have been invited to exhibit at Scoutrail at Wylam next month. This is a one day event so we have decided to exhibit "Sunderland District". Details can be found in the Sunderland District exhibition diary.

In order to make our Home page more interesting, I have added a diagram and some extra photographs. The next planned update, will include an extra page describing how the motorised tower windmill was built.

I have added a link to London Model Tramways. This site by John Howe describes his two exhibition models of London Tramways

For December I have added a page about the life of Gordon Douglas and the trams he built and ran on a large track in Roker Park in Sunderland. Gordon introduced me to tramway modelling in 1990 when I met him, while he was raising money for his charities by exhibiting his 1/16th scale trams, at the Gateshead Metro Centre. There is a gallery showing many of his model trams using photos from a number of sources.

For November I have renamed the site 'Model Trams and Tramways', this rmore accurately reflects its content. This update also sees the completion of the changes to the menu presentation which I started back in August.

I have added full details of Foxwood Park in four additional pages which include a photo gallery containing 25 images and a video gallery. It is now set out in the same format as the other model tramways described here but the Blog has been retained and updated this month. I have taken the opportunity to move the Perth Green video from the blog into the new video gallery.

For the next update I have been researching the 1/16th scale model trams of Sunderland built by Gordon Douglas who lived in the Town. The intention is to publish an article about Gordon, who was probably the first tram modeller in the North East of England, and a photo gallery showing as many of his models as possible. Three of these models are now in the possession of the Tramway and Light Railway Society and are being run, by members, at exhibitions.

George Wilkinson has supplied me with a number of new photographs of 'Sealane', his '0' gauge Sunderland Tramway which I have used to update the Photo Gallery.

The next update will include a full description and photo gallery of 'Foxwood Park' which will be featured in 'Tramfare' and 'Railway Modeller' in 2010.

I have added a link to Transport Models website on the links page 1. This is a world-wide image library dedicated to all transport related scale models. So all from fire engines and military vehicles to trams, trains and buses are covered. In addition I have added some extra images to the Sunderland District Photo Gallery, which now contains 20.

We have just passed the milestone of 3000 visitors!! Let me know via the 'Contact Us' page if you like the changes I have made to the menus. The other news is that I have started to scratch build a tower windmill to replace the post mill on Foxwood Park. Details and photographs have been added to the Blog with more to follow at the next update in early November. This update will have full details of 'Foxwood Park' and will then be in line with the other tramways described on this website

Not much to report this month but the Foxwood Park Blog has a short update on the Middlesbrough problems. I have received an invitation to exhibit Foxwood Park at the Heaton Park Tramway exhibition on the first Sunday of September. Full details are in the Exhibition Diary. The next site update should be in early September.

The Foxwood Park Blog has again been updated including more of the finishing work done before, and a short report on the problems encountered at Middlesbrough Model Railway Exhibition.

As mentioned in the last update, both of the Sunderland system histories are now available to view. As they have been adequately covered by S. A. Staddon in his two editions of "The Tramways of Sunderland" these histories are, of neccessity, brief with only one short page for the District system and a longer page covering the work of all the General Managers of the Corporation system. These have been compiled for me by Malcolm Fraser, an acknowledged expert on the Sunderland systems.

George Wilkinson has given me three new dates which have been added to the Sealane exhibition diary

As it is now 1 year since the site was launched to the web, it seemd to be an appropriate time to introduce a new colour scheme which I hope will give more impact and be easier to read. I have also rewrritten some parts of the Automatic Tram Stops pages to include an extra diagram.

By the next update, in early May, I hope to have brief Sunderland tram system histories available for view. These are being compiled for me by Malcolm Fraser, an acknowledged expert on the Sunderland systems.

The Foxwood Park Blog has been updated with details of the work done before the Perth Green Exhibition at Jarrow. I have added a short video clip to the blog, which was taken at the exhibition last weekend.

A new video of Sealane has been uploaded to YouTube by George Wilkinson. The Sealane video page has had the new link added.

As Foxwood Park is almost ready for exhibition later this month the Blog has been updated with details of the work done. Over the next few months, a full description, photographs and video will be added in line with the other model tramways described in these pages.

Not much change this month but the Foxwood Park Blog has again been updated and the Links pages have also had some additions made and all pages are now linked back to the Home page instead of to their own menu page.

I have uploaded two new pages, complete with diagrams, explaining how my Automatic Tram Stops work. The Foxwood Park Blog has been updated and the site map now shows the additional pages. The Main Menu has been changed to show the Automatic Tram Stops and Motorise Corgi Trams pages at the top with the Model Tramway pages below. There is a new YouTube video from George Wilkinson on his Sealane 'O' gauge tramway featuured this month .

The Foxwood Park Blog has been updated along with its Exhibition Diary. I am working on additional pages describing the basics of automatic tram stops using cut rails which should be included in the next update due in early January

The links page has been extended and split into two pages with the addition of Model Railway Clubs where we have exhibited and suppliers of model railway scenic accessories and buildings we have used on our tramways. The Foxwood Park Blog has also been updated.

Early construction details for Foxwood Park, our new tramway have been added as a blog. This will be updated as and when progress is made. The first exhibition for Foxwood Park will be at Perth Green Model Railway Exhibition on 21 / 22 March 2009.

Today I uploaded a major redesign of the site, which now includes side menus on all pages, and for the first time, a separate Updates page and a Site Map. These changes should make the site much easier to navigate. All of the Exhibition Diaries have been changed to show the latest dates at the top of the listings instead of the bottom. This change should make it easier to find out if we have any new exhibitions booked.