Peco unveils recently renovated railway modelling exhibition

One of Devon’s most popular tourist attractions, Pecorama, is celebrating the opening of its recently renovated railway modelling exhibition, owned and curated by PECO, on the birthday anniversary of its late founder, Sydney Pritchard.

Pecorama and its parent company PECO Model Railways, are commemorating the occasion with a company timeline that marks and documents all of the company’s significant milestones during its illustrious 78 year history.

PECO (Pritchard Patent Product Co Ltd), was first established in 1946 just after the end of World War II by local businessman, Sydney Pritchard and his wife, Claudine. As a former manufacturer of munitions during the war, Sydney was able to focus his attentions on his true passion, model railways, and developed and patented a sophisticated mechanical part that revolutionised how trains could be operated. This part (a Simplex Auto Coupler), was eventually licensed to Hornby with a royalty of one farthing per unit - paid to its inventor. This quickly enabled Sydney to expand on the product range and form the company which remains one of the most successful and highly-respected in the industry.

Today, the British manufacturer engineers and produces over 2,500 products and is still a privately-owned family business in its 3rdgeneration, employing over 180 staff. It publishes Britian’s best-selling railway modelling magazine, Railway Modeller as well as Continental Modeller and has operated its visitor attraction, Pecorama, for over 40 years.  It is currently the largest manufacturer of model railway track in the world.