Located on the Metro concourse at Gateshead Interchange, the brass plaque has seen a thorough clean and has been rebuffed and now gleams like a mirror once again.

The restoration project was carried out by Nexus who own and operate Metro as a mark of respect after the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the II in September.

The cleaning work was undertaken by track engineering apprentices, Daniel Noble who is 19 and from South Shields and Oliver Humphries who is 19 and from Seaham. The apprentices carefully cleaned and polished the plaque using Brasso with a good helping of elbow grease in order to remove 40 years’ worth of dirt. The plaque now glistens beautifully bringing a symbolic shine to the Metro system.

Customer Services Director at Nexus, Huw Lewis, said: “It’s wonderful to see the plaque that the Queen unveiled in 1981 shining brightly once again.

“Our apprentices have done a cracking job getting it all cleaned, polished, and looking as good as new.

“It now looks exactly like it was that day in November 1981 when scores of staff, media and civic dignitaries gathered to watch Her Majesty officially declare the Tyne and Wear Metro open on what was a historic day for our region.”

The Queen unveiled the plaque on the 6th of November 1981 during a visit to Tyneside where she officially opened Metro. The visit saw Her Majesty arrive in a car on Grey Street in central Newcastle ahead of boarding a Metro train at Monument where she also met the team who had worked on the project

. The event saw a special gantry created so that she could get off the train to officially name the QEII Metro bridge crossing the River Tyne before travelling on to Gateshead, taking time to meet the driver ahead of unveiling the plaque on the concourse.