Page 24 - NMRA Roundhouse September-October 2019
P. 24

 Bob Phelps Presented with NMRA Distinguished Service Award
  NMRA NEWS
An example of Bob Phelp’s amazing track design - photo by Peter Bowen
Wednesday 27 July followed – up until just a few
2016 was a significant date in the history of the PECO group of
companies with the retirement of senior product designer, Bob Phelps, after an incredible 52 years of loyal service with the Devon-based model railway manu- facturer.
Illustrating just how long ago it was that Bob started his association with PECO, it was at a time when steam traction still held sway across the British national network; when he travelled to Devon from his London home for an interview in 1963, at the age of 25, he made the journey from Waterloo on the down “Atlantic Coast Express”, hauled by a British Railways Southern Region “West Country” Bulleid Pacific.That interview was, in fact, to prove unsuccessful but the following year Bob was offered
the post of product designer by PECO founder, Sydney Pritchard.
Bob had started out in his working career as an apprentice draughtsman for British aircraft builder De Havil- land. He worked in the engine division, subsequently spending two years in the contract design office working on nucle- ar submarines. All the skills and experi- ences gained at this time proved to be valuable once he joined the company as product designer.
Bob recalls that his first task was to design items for the N scale PECO Setrack line and, over the decades that
 years before retirement, he was responsible for the design work
on every new PECO product. However, when asked which
design he was most proud of, Bob cited, perhaps rather surprisingly, the humble Pecolectrics PL-26 passing contact switch. He explained, “We tendered the design work
for a completely new passing contact switch out to
a number of specialist switch companies but none were able to deliver what we wanted.
We spent two years develop- ing it ourselves and eventually we cracked
it, which was hugely satisfy- ing.”
Although Bob spent his formative years in London, spotting steam locomotives from the Big Four railway companies
at the Capital’s termini, his main pas- sion has always been for the railroads
of North America. This interest was inherited from his father, himself a highly skilled modelmaker who specialised
in scratch building models of Ameri- can-outline steam locomotives from brass in HO. He was also a founder of the NMRA British Region. It will come as no surprise that the product line that
arguably has made the most impact on the American market in recent times is PECO Streamline HO Code 83 – the “83 Line” – a track system that was designed specifically to meet the needs of the modeller of American railroads and one that was most closest to Bob’s interest, he being an avid modeller of the Union Pacific!
  24 ROUNDHOUSE - September/October 2019
   











































































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