PECORAMA to close

Found this item this afternoon.
Statement from Peco.
It is with great sadness and after much soul-searching we have decided to close Pecorama, our well-loved family attraction, for the 2026 season.
With the challenging economic climate and costs continuing to rise, the PECO parent company cannot continue to support the financial losses of Pecorama. There is sincere hope that Pecorama can reopen in future in a new format which will continue to give lots of inspiration, fun and pleasure to our visitors. But, for the moment PECO will be focusing on growing the core businesses of manufacturing and publishing.
Our sincere thanks go out to all our staff and volunteers for their dedication and hard work in making Pecorama a wonderful, friendly place to visit.
If you hold a Gold Card membership with us, we are happy to offer a refund for any months that cannot be used. Please email us at info@pecorama.co.uk for details.
Finally, we want to thank our lovely visitors for bringing the site to life and we look forward to welcoming you all again in some form in the future.

 

I hope it can be reborn without losing the outside amenities that are really the jewel in its crown.

 

The full statement says they're only profitable for 4 months of the year, but obviously the maintenance must continue year round.

 

We visited several times when the children were younger.

Sad but necessary I suppose

 

According to their Facebook page pecorama is to close immediately and will not reopen for 2026, at least

 

Pecorama is the indoor display, based on Peco products, not the Beer Heights railway - I think it is necessary to draw a distinction between the two! Presumably the railway could still be run, even by volunteers, whether or not Pecorama remains open or closes permanently. I'd be more concerned about the fate of "Orion", the Golden Arrow Pullman - without Pecorama it's hard to see any need for it, but afaik it has never had its asbstos content removed, and that is likely be a very, very expensive undertaking - perhaps combining it with the opportunity to rebuild its body, replacing the timber frame with steel, as was done for "Pegasus".

 

Pecorama is the WHOLE PLACE you pay to go into it’s the inside and gardens AND railway and it’s very sad it has closed bu it will also reopen again so I don’t think they will want you to rebuild their carriage

 

It would be quite feasible for a volunteer group to run the BHLR independently of the other components of Pecorama, although probably not on a daily basis.. It would all depend on what the Peco management want to do. Their statement really doesn't give much clue to their ideas for the long term future of the attraction, I'm just guessing that "Orion" will not have much of a future in its own right. Whoever owns in going forward is going to have to face up very large bills dealing with the asbestos contamination issues, and I'm not sure the the BHLR, even if independently run, will make enough to pay for dealing with them.

 

It's just been announced that the BHLR will open for three gala weekends during 2026: 23rd/24th May, 18th/19th July and 15th/16th August.

https://www.pecorama.co.uk/pages/events-at-pecorama

Nothing has been said about what this might mean for the longer-term future of the railway, or Pecorama more widely. But if you want to see the BHLR I'd grab the opportunity whilst it's there!

 

Guess who's staying 20 minutes away from there the following weekend in August...?

 

Many thanks for bringing this to my attention. We have so many happy memories of the BHLR! Great to know we can wander back there at least once more.