Tyne & Wear Metro operator Nexus has published home videos made by former worker Gordon Armstrong for people to see Metro trains in operation in what owner Nexus describes as their “heyday”.

The Class 599 trains were the Metro’s original rolling stock, entering service in August 1980. Nexus reckons that between them, the trains have carried 1.7 billion passenger journeys and travelled up to half a billion kilometres. They will run for the final time between Monday 22 June and Friday 26 June, and are being replaced by new Class 555 trains.

Gordon, who lived in North Tyneside, worked in the Tyne & Wear Metro’s control room before his retirement. He died from a heart attack on 30 December last year aged 74, having lived in Thailand for eight years. leaving behind his films of trains on the Metro system that he recorded with his camcorder in 2004 and 2005. He is survived by his wife Michaela and their two sons. Jack, aged 33, is a Metro driver, and 29-year-old Campbell works in events management.

Nexus describes the footage as “a fantastic way to look back at the old trains”. The trains will operate their last journeys in service next week. Some have already been taken out of service and sent for recycling.

The trains in the home video are in the Metro’s 1990s colour scheme, including carriages in blue, green and red, and in advertisers’ colours.

Gordon’s friend and Nexus colleague Phil Taylor helped him in making the films.

The footage includes clips of infrastructure which has changed since or is no longer in use. This includes the old Gosforth Depot, the (now former) South Shields Metro station, and the QEII Metro bridge when it was still painted white.

Footage also includes supporters of Newcastle United fans at Monument Metro station travelling home from a match. At that time, the football club’s shirt sponsor was Northern Rock.

Nexus has posted the home movies on its official YouTube channel.

“Gordon had a passion for film making and photography. He loved it.

“It is amazing to see his Metro video getting some attention all these years on from when he made it. I still have the camera that he made it with. He captured the old trains when they were at their peak. He’d have been over the moon to see the focus on this now. It’s sad that he’s not around now to see it.

“Film making was a labour of love for him. He’d immerse himself in any project that he was working on. The Metro one was close to his heart as he worked there for so many years.”

Michaela Brown, Gordon’s former wife