{"id":64240,"date":"2026-08-22T14:00:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T13:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=64240"},"modified":"2026-08-22T10:01:31","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T09:01:31","slug":"war-memorial-using-old-metro-tracks-officially-unveiled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=64240","title":{"rendered":"War Memorial using old Metro tracks officially unveiled"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Wear Metro and saw staff from Nexus involved in its construction, has been officially unveiled on the anniversary of VJ Day, Saturday 15<sup>th<\/sup> August.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The war memorial has been created in memory of North East solider Len Gibson and his fellow prisoners who built the so-called \u201cDeath Railway\u201d between Thailand and Myanmar from 1942 until 1943.<\/p>\n<p>Around ten metres of Metro track has been used to create the finished memorial which goes alongside a statue to Len Gibson which was built in 2025 by local philanthropist Brian Burnie. The ten metres length was chosen to signify that on average two men died for every 10 metres of track laid.<\/p>\n<p>Cathy Massarella, Managing Director of Nexus, said: \u201cThis is a fantastic and particularly poignant social value project. We are honoured to be a part of it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe used Metro tracks have created a stunning new memorial for British troops who served in the Far East during World War Two, and it really complements the Len Gibson statue that Mr Burnie unveiled at North Marine Park last year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe use of the Metro rails and sleepers is especially moving, given that British prisoners of war, including Len Gibson, were forced to build the \u201cDeath Railway\u201d between Thailand and Myanmar (formerly Burma), from 1942 to 1943.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy re-using these items in this way, it supports our own commitment to work sustainably in everything that we do, while helping the voluntary sector where we can.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur Infrastructure Works Delivery Team have done an amazing job putting in the track during their volunteer day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Brian Burnie said: \u201cI\u2019m really grateful for the support we\u2019ve had from Nexus on this project. I can\u2019t thank them enough for the rails and their efforts to install them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe finished memorial looks amazing. It\u2019s a poignant commemoration for all the British soldiers who served in the far east during the war. We will always remember them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOver the last 80 years, I\u2019ve been to war memorials all over the world, but this we\u2019ve created today is real. You can see and touch it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The memorial is in North Marine Park, South Shields.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wear Metro and saw staff from Nexus involved in its construction, has been officially unveiled on the anniversary of VJ Day, Saturday 15th August.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[67],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64240"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=64240"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64241,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64240\/revisions\/64241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=64240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=64240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=64240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}