Oscar and Piker. Real, or a figment of Walther's imagination?

[DrummingTrainfan]

Were the Oscar and Piker (unfortunately I can't find a link, so I'll give my best shot at a description. They were two single-truck passenger cars, they had three axle trucks and came in a variety of roadnames) real cars, or just a figment of imagination of someone in the design department at Walthers?

[Anonymous]

the latter

[TomDiehl]

OMG, flashback time. They were discontinued sometime back in the 70's. I have the Piker. Yes they were a bit of whimsy from Walthers. No known prototype.

[dknelson]

Walthers brought them back in RTR form within the last few years, and they might still be in the catalog. As originally offered they at least were a good introduction in how to build a Walthers passenger car kit. Of course the famous feature of the Piker "back in the day" was the girl in the shower.
Dave Nelson

[CNJ831]

These two, along with later items like the "jailbox", the politically oriented cars, and others, were just a bit of Walthers' silliness that first appeared in the 1950's and continued to resurface from time to time over the next 40 years. None ever had prototypes.

As I seem to recall, the Oscar and Piker were originally intended to accompany some very small locomotive Walthers was offering about the time but I can't remember just which it was (perhaps the cab forward Dockside?) and it's too late tonight to go downstairs to dip into my reference catalogs in the layout room to see.

CNJ831

[Texas Zepher]

QUOTE: Originally posted by DrummingTrainfan
]Were the Oscar and Piker real cars, or just a figment of imagination?

They are just sillyness, but everyone loves them. I have a set that I get out on the club layout from time to time. Any public present always notice them and comment favorably. When I leave them in the coach yard they always get included in whatever appropriate train is being made up. The dispatcher (a real hard core "realist" modeler) loves to assign them to the mixed local.

I just wi***heye made a baggage-coach combined for the set!

QUOTE: TomDiehl wrote:
OMG, flashback time. They were discontinued sometime back in the 70's.

This isn't true. They are still available in RTR. I purchased mine not more than three years ago.

[chutton01]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Texas Zepher
This isn't true. They are still available in RTR. I purchased mine not more than three years ago.

They don't seem to be listed in the on-line catalog - I checked Advanced Search, Passenger Cars - HO , using keywords Oscar and then Piker - nada... adding Walthers didn't seem to make a difference (since that only restricts the search criteria further).

Always like them in the 70s Walthers catalog, and then kinda forgot about them till the re-release - guess the RTRs didn't sell that well.

[Anonymous]

Similarly inspired my friend Bob Montag once kit-bashed a "pass-a-fridg-a-gond-a-flox". You've heard of a 'one man band' ? Well this thing was a one car railroad !! You've probably seen a real 'flox' car in MofW service, a short section of boxcar occupying one end of a flat car. Well Bob decided to make a passenger-refrigerator-gondola-flat-boxcar all on one set of trucks! Looked pretty neat, but then again we were in high school at the time !
Mike

[river_eagle]

IIRC, they were last in the Walthers catalog in 2001 or 2002.

[emdgp92]

Hehe I've seen those cars! I thought about getting them, painting them up in PRR, just to drive the Penn Central guys nuts :P

BTW, does anyone remember the furor over the PC steam decals in MR awhile back? Those too were "unprototypical," yet they caused an uproar.

[DrummingTrainfan]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Mike McBreen

Similarly inspired my friend Bob Montag once kit-bashed a "pass-a-fridg-a-gond-a-flox". You've heard of a 'one man band' ? Well this thing was a one car railroad !! You've probably seen a real 'flox' car in MofW service, a short section of boxcar occupying one end of a flat car. Well Bob decided to make a passenger-refrigerator-gondola-flat-boxcar all on one set of trucks! Looked pretty neat, but then again we were in high school at the time !
Mike

The ultimate for the space-limited modeler! [:o)][;)]

[Anonymous]

They are whimsy. They were originally produced in kit form metal in the 50s. Walthers had a run in kit form in plastic about 7 years ago, and I bought a pair. Nice kit. I didn't know they were ever done in RTR, but you would still need to paint and populate the interiors.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

After an extensive internet search I can post my findings on the Oscar and Piker Passenger cars. Zero, Zilch, Bop-kiss, Da-nada, Never existed in prototype form.

Somebody definitly had thier imagination running on overload when they thought those up.

[Anonymous]

http://www.all-model-railroading.co.uk/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=049637810b44585b8a16d2562bdcee17&topic=1532.msg19534

For everyone who wants to see these dandy's. Just scroll through. There's a couple of pictures.

Kevin

[METRO]

You know it came down to a decision a couple years ago, an Oscar and Piker or a Kato business car in CP. Sorry Walthers but I chose the beautiful Kato, 80 feet of Burlington-prototyped perfection right there.

Cheers!
~METRO

[cacole]

I hope Walthers releases them again in diferent road names, because I missed out on the last run.

[dinwitty]

I think one of the model mags had some article about the Penn Central Steam decals, who knows, it shoulda happened buutt... you know....
yeh the piker was just a fun thing like the Dockside Cab Forward kit even adding a tender. But there really was an early small cab forward steamer.

[Texas Zepher]

QUOTE: Originally posted by 8500HPGASTURBINE
I guy at the club actually has these in Brass.

Wow, the kits have aluminum or tin sides, but I've never seen one in brass.

[amtrakjackson]

I had both of them; kits I assembled in the 70s. They were neat from a craftsman perspective- well, compared to stuff available nowadays. I think the sides were tin; roofs wood, ends were pot metal. Maybe. But they were fun as heck to build!!

And who can forget the "Beer Can" Tank Cars??

Ian Smith

[Anonymous]

Hey, 8500HPGASTURBINE,

Did you read the turbine piece left you on the TURBINE survey topic page ???
I about got knocked off a bridge by one of those once.
Thought you might enjoy the story.

Mike

[msowsun]

There ia one on Ebay right now......

http://cgi.ebay.ca/DTD-HO-Scale-Walthers-7899-The-Oscar-Craftsman-Kit_W0QQitemZ6058155811QQcategoryZ19141QQcmdZViewItem

[msowsun]

[BR60103]

I've had the Piker for over 40 years. I have an Oscar in the box.
I finally got a beer can tank car kit that I plan to use on a CP Rail water can that I found.

[SP4449]

[8D] Got my Oscar and Piker at a train show last fall. Walthers item numbers are 932-11 for Oscar and 932-12 for Piker, both in Union Pacific colors. They are ready to roll with wire grabs and working diaphrams to be added by the purchaser and the EZ-Mate couplers can be changed to Kadee # 5s. Both cars are detailed inside but without people so a "girl in the shower" could definitely be added. The UP shields on the sides has the older "Union Pacific Railroad" printing in them. Look for a blue and black box with multi-color lettering and the term "Walthers HO Scale 2000" on the top and ends. Paid 16.75 USD, each. [8D] [8D]

[AntonioFP45]

LOL, for those of you that have never seen it, Walther's "JailBox car" was a riot!  I regret never getting one.  I vaguely remember it's slogan:

 "Next Crime, Anytime!"

For today.....I wish there were prototype versions of this car that could be put to actual use.   Would be great if those graffitti-train-trashing vandals  could be locked up in them for a few weeks.

(Of course the political correctness twinkies  would be up in arms)

[BRAKIE]

LOL, for those of you that have never seen it, Walther's "JailBox car" was a riot!  I regret never getting one.  I vaguely remember it's slogan:

 "Next Crime, Anytime!"

For today.....I wish there were prototype versions of this car that could be put to actual use.   Would be great if those graffitti-train-trashing vandals  could be locked up in them for a few weeks.

(Of course the political correctness twinkies  would be up in arms)

 

Antonio,I had one of those J-Boxes..I glued 5 figures in that car and proceeded to switch that car into a train at the club from time to time..It always got a lot of laughs and odd looks from our visitors during open houses..

[AntonioFP45]

Well, I'm going to add this to my "Want to get" list.  If I can't find one on ebay, I'm hoping I can find an old photo so I can repaint a 50ft. boxcar and rebuild it into a "Jail Box".

Ironically I did a dumb thing. I had two Walthers Catalogs from the late 1970s-early 1980s and one of them had the JailBox Car in it. I threw one away and gave the other away........Dumb move!

If anyone has a photo of a "Jail Box" please post the link!

Thanks!

[Kurt_Laughlin]

I've just been going through late '70s issues of MR and the ads for these (and the beer can tankers, and the Jimmy Carter peanut car) were in their "Tongue in Cheek" series, so they weren't real.

 

KL

[boxcar_jim]

While everyone here is dead right about Oscar and Piker being whimsy, whoever it was at Walthers that dreamed them up wasn't competely off his rocker ...

... one of the smaller western railroads I think it may have been the Sierra had some really very short passenger cars (25 footers I think). They rode on two four wheel trucks though ... MRR published a photo of them not that long ago.

[AntonioFP45]

I've just been going through late '70s issues of MR and the ads for these (and the beer can tankers, and the Jimmy Carter peanut car) were in their "Tongue in Cheek" series, so they weren't real.

KL

Yes, you're correct but they're really neat as attention getters!  Imagine having a train of these cars, including the JailBox, running on a club layout on an "Open House" or "Visitor" day.  Visitors, young and seasoned would get a real kick out of them.