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

[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.

[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.

[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

[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

[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.

[Anonymous]

the latter

[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?