Slater-Jones Sidings was born out of a vision to augment the existing real life model railway exhibition circuit with an exciting 21st centuary online virtual exhibition, complete with both layout and trade stands, lecture and demonstration halls and a place to meet and talk.

About the Owner:

Mike Slater-Jones has been in the IT Industry for 20 years. Recently he has set up his own IT Consultancy, S-J IT Solutions Ltd, to provide consultancy and web hosting/design services to individuals and SME's. It is hoped that should Slater-Jones Sidings proves a success, then this virtual system will be offered to organisers of exhibitions and events, so that they can have a simultaneous online presence.

Story:

Like all good layouts, each has its own ficticious back story, and Slater-Jones Sidings is no different.

Mike needed a "home" for his new exhibition. It had to be different, maybe even preserving some railway history. After a lot of searching he decided on resurrecting a now non-existent TMD and Tinsley TMD fitted the bill perfectly. Permission was granted by Neil Harvey to use one of his pictures of Tinsley on the site. Not only did it look like the exterior of the hall photographs in use on the site, but the whole area is in the process of being redeveloped as a Business Park and new rail freight terminal. It wouldn't take a huge stretch of imagination to visualise a permanent model railway exhibition housed in the old maintenance sheds. It also had rail lines already laid into the halls so that locomotives for the centre piece displays could easily be transported to the show.