Company Profile: Sommerfeldt
History in a Nutshell
Sommerfeldt Oberleitungen + Stromabnehmer
GmbH was established near Hattenhofen, Germany, by Günter Sommerfeldt around 1950. He'd worked at a publishing house that created
instructions for the assembly of model railroad kits, which drew him into the hobby. Displeased with the state of model catenary (overhead wire)
at the time, he developed his own line of more realistic products in his garage. When Trix equipped an E-94 with Sommerfeldt
pantographs, it proved so popular that other companies began ordering them. In 1969, a new factory was built in Hattenhofen, where around a dozen
employees worked—a number that nearly doubled in just a year or two. Today the company
continues to manufacture the same catenary products it has for
over 65 years.
N Scale Products
Sommerfeldt entered the N Scale market in 1968. Here's some data on their earliest N Scale products:
Printed Matter
February 1968 Model Railroader ad for Nathan R. Preston:
1969 catalog cover:
