Quite a while ago, I saw an ad in either Walthers Catalog, a modeling magazine or some other publication that they had for sale PRR Oscar and Pike Passenger Cars for HO Scale. One looked like a P70 coach and the other a combine but only half the length and ran on only one truck each. Can someone point me in the right direction as to whom may still have these for sale?
Then again, does anyone but me know what I am talking about?
God I hope so...

I remember Walthers kits for the Oscar but gee it must have been 30 years ago. Rode on one 6 wheel truck, pressed metal sides, cast pot metal ends, wood roof stock you had to carve or shape the ends. Very typical for the kit technology of the day, but probably crude measured by today's offerings. Overall could not have scaled out more than 25 feet long.

I suppose one might come available if you watched flea bay.

But if you want a shorty (real shorty) car like that, it might be easier to do a kitbash on a current plastic kit from Walthers or Branchline.

Bob Kutella

I'm going to try this from the recall of a kid just starting out in HO in 1957. They were called Oscar and Piker. Remember them well, but I believe that the Piker (std Pullman) was first, and was available by the very early 1960's. The construction was similar to Walthers kits from back in the 1940s, maybe earlier. Oscar was second and had the open platform configuration. They rode on one 6-wheel truck. They were re-released about 2000 for a limited run. Check the Walthers catalog. Maybe they're still made. Stranger products have hung on. Maybe the dusty back shelf. I believe I've seen one or two of them at the Greenberg show here in the No. VA. area. I've often regretted not getting at least one of them. Thanks for the memory jog!!

And I may say that at the bigger/better train shows I routinely attend (Great Scale Train Show, Timonium, Md.), there's almost always a couple of those kits/cars available. Let me know if you want a shell buyer on your behalf, although I will reiterate what the others said, the technology and quality of the kits was crude/ancient by modern standards. If the concept fascinates you, a competent kitbasher working with styrene and junk parts from the dollar box at one of these shows might be able to freelance a more impressive (though probably not as cute) "toy business car" set.............

While the Walthers "Piker" and "Oscar" are often looked on as a gag, they did serve a marketing purpose at the time. The construction was exactly the same as the Walthers full length heavyweight passenger car kits of the era, but the price was considerably less, so a modeler could buy the "cheapie" and see if his skills were up to tackling the real deal. As others have mentioned, the kits consisted of embossed and pre-punched tinplate sides, cast white metal ends and details, with a wood roof section that required the modeler to carve the ends to shape. While crude by today’s standards, the construction did allow Walthers to offer models of a bewildering variety of different cars, simply by changing the sides. Walthers finally discontinued the old tinplate side kit line in the early eighties, IIRC.

In Walther's 2002 catalog, page 250, there is a page devoted to a re-issue of the Oscar and Piker. These were plastic and came complete with interiors. Available in sets (39.98 set) or individual cars (24.98 each).

I remembered the re-issue and once I found this listing I did not check out adjacent years. I've got 30 years of Walther's catalogs on the shelf.

Boy, in the last five years Walther's has sure expanded in passenger train models, both heavyweight and streamline! And then you add in the nice Pullman kits from Branchline.