What happened to Suydam?

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

What happened to E. Suydam & Company structures?

Any info?

Thanks,

Mark

2

Mark,
As I’m sure you know Ed Suydam passed away quite a few years ago. He started his HO model structure and trolley detail business around 1950. A company by the name of Alpine Division Scale Models now has the line of Suydam products. They are located in Cerritos in Southern California, not too far from where the original Suydam plant was located. Alpine kits are available from Walthers as well as most of the better hobby shops. The construction material and instruction sheets are the same as the original kits, with cardstock, wood, and metal components making up most of the buildings. It seems like Alpine does a run of a few of the buildings to fill orders, then a few months later you will see a run of another group, so almost always you fill find kits on back-order even from large dealers like Walthers. Prices, of course, have jumped considerably from the days of Suydam. I remember purchasing quite a few of the kits Suydam made for a Pacific Electric layout I constructed in the 70’s. At that time the kits were selling for $6-8 each. Never had any problem building any of the models and the parts fit well. I soldered the all metal kits like the trolley barn, but state of the art adhesives would probably work just as well as solder.

Good luck if you decide to purchase any of these, they build up to nice looking layout structures without too much work.

3

Thanks,

I did not know, I will look at Alpine.

Mark

4

Mark,
Their Web site URL is:
http://www.alpinemodels.com
Bob
NMRA Life 0543