The Tyneside Local Group

The Tyneside Local Group of the German Railway Society holds meetings on the second Tuesday of each month at the Gosforth Residents Association Community Hall at Christon Road, in Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne, between 7.00 p.m. and 9.30 p.m..

The meeting venue is easily reached by local public transport, being only about 5 minutes walk from Regent Centre Metro Station or 8 minutes walk from South Gosforth Metro Station on the Tyne and Wear Metro system, both of these stations are located to the north of Newcastle upon Tyne. By either walking or driving down Christon Road, the hall is on the left hand side past two schools. There are plenty of car parking spaces nearby.

The Tyneside Local Group was formed in December 2004 and it currently has ten members, who all have an interest in the railways of Germany, which includes one member who is a narrow gauge German and Austrian railway enthusiast. Therefore interest in all railway gauges - both standard and narrow gauge - are catered for. New members are always welcome at any of the meetings.

The members are involved in the design and construction of a model railway layout, named “Neukassel”, which represents a German main line station in HO gauge (3.5 mm to the foot scale) model railway layout, which also includes an HOe narrow gauge branch line (based on 750 or 760 mm gauge, equivalent to 2 ft 6 inch narrow gauge, using 9 mm or N gauge track). In June 2005, the track plan for the layout was complete and several of the layout boards had been constructed. Eventually during future meetings, it is hoped to lay the track, and to add the controllers and the necessary wiring to operate trains on the layout, also to add the scenery and buildings. It is hoped to display and operate the completed layout, at various local model railway exhibitions, in order to promote the existance of the German Railway Society and the Tyneside Local Group and hopefully to recruit new members.

The German Railway Society caters for modellers of either German or Austrian railways and therefore local group members are encouraged to bring along any railway items - for example - models, magazines, books or model railway catalogues to the meetings, in order to share and exchange their views and interests with the other members.

Anyone who is interested in either German, Austrian or European railways in general, are always welcome to join the Tyneside Local Group and to attend any of the meetings. Attendance at one of the meetings is free of charge and the current membership fees to attend further meetings after that, are £3.00 per meeting or an annual 12 meeting subscription is available for a discounted price of £30, i.e. 12 meetings for the price of 10. The fees help to pay towards the hire costs of the hall and will assist with the other expenses of the local group.

Refreshments are provided at the meetings, usually either tea or coffee and biscuits, which are provided for a small charge of 20p per member towards the group funds.

The following photographs show various local group members in various activities during one of the meetings including the construction of the model railway layout and partaking in refreshments offered during the meeting.

Further information regarding the Tyneside Local Group can be obtained from Peter Glenn at the following e-mail address:-

tpeterglenn@hotmail.com