Pecorama

[Graham]

Remember taking the sprogs there before we moved to Aus.
Was a lovely day out for the family. Sad to hear it is closing, but like a lot of businesses, they need to make money to keep going, and if Pecorama is a drain on the business, it is understandable they will close it.

[Roy L S]

Peco have said it is closing for the 2026 season, but have also said that they hope it will reopen in a changed form in the future. That could be interpreted in a lot of different ways, including having a pause for a year to revise the business model to make it more sustainable, look at outsourcing certain elements, re-evaluating what buildings get used to, staffing requirements etc. It would seem entirely plausible that a skeleton staff will be kept on to maintain the infrastructure and that BHLR will continue to be operated in a reduced way if driver courses are still being listed, but not every day. Time will tell.

I have visited Pecorama only once with Dawn a few years before the Pandemic. For me the model shop was well stocked but with everything seemingly listed at RRP not especially competitive, however I still walked out with a Farish N Class as a memento of the visit, maybe other people do similar? We had tea in "Orion" which was a lovely experience and a ride on the BHLR through the grounds which was equally enjoyable. For me the most disappointing part was the layouts in the "Pecorama" building, many of which looked old and tired, I had expected much better from Peco. I wouldn't be in the least bit surprised if the layouts go and that space is repurposed.

Is part of the issue promotion? I went because I knew it was there, and as a railway/model railway enthusiast embraced everything, but maybe it really needs to be rebranded, redesigned and promoted to appeal to the average holidaymaker. Pecorama has 10k followers on Facebook and there have been 1.1k comments as regards the closure, BHLR 2.9k and is 100% recommended, clearly they do something right for those who do visit.

So, in my humble opinion this may hopefully be a strategic break rather than the end of everything, I would have thought far too much has been invested to close it permanently without thorough evaluation of what parts work and have potential and what doesn't.

Roy

[Fardap]

All really good points above and it could be as simple as the easiest way to change is to stop and start again.

Having been on committees where suggestions are made and the old guard say they tried that... then when asked clarify it was in 1984 or such like - times change.
So hopefully it is a revamp and rethink. They say it is profitable for four months, maybe they will just concentrate on that initially with extra time being added if a success.

I feel for all involved and hopefully it wasn't people digging heals in to do it the way it has always been done that has contributed to the decision.

I have let them down by visiting Beer the village a couple of times but not making the trip up the hill - was out of season and wet but still...

[EtchedPixels]

It's not that easy to mothball the railway long term.

The locomotives will have boiler certificates which expire.

Replace the innards with batteries a motor and some sound and steam circuits and add some diesels. Most people will never know. As to drivers - for little toy trains you can train drivers up quite fast.

Aside from the economic situation and the brexit effects (loss of foreign visitors for example) there are a bunch of heritage rail operations struggling because they've not adapted to the modern era. What people will attend and the kind of people attending has changed dramatically in the past decade.

The "give me steam or give me death" people have due to age increasingly arrived at the latter option and the one that follows likes old diesel locomotives so will attend diesel galas.

The family side is also very different - for one there are a lot less families with children in some areas of the UK, what they look for has changed and with demographic changes you need more "not for kids" activity. Hence all the fancy dining trains, murder mysteries and the like that are doing the rounds.

So hopefully their pause will allow them to rearrange without running out of cash first, figure out what actually works and maybe they just need to be a seasonal operation - most are.