Walthers O scale kits of the 1960's 2- rail O scale

I have the pages listing the Milw cars from the 1958, 64 and 67 in soft copy.

The catalog numbers for the listed Olympian Car kits and their descriptions are as follows, note availability of the kits listed varied from catalog to catalog reflecting inventory available etc.

4615 60' RPO,  4762 75' Baggage Dormitory, 4763 75' Mail Express,  4764 75' Express Baggage,          4843 80' Diner,  4844 80' Coach, 4846 80' Parlor, 4847 80' Lunch Lounge, 4863 86' Tourist Lounge,          4864 80' Observation,  59-1102  84' Super Dome (Sides only)

Pete

Thanks Pete. I have a couple of questions. First was the observation car a Skytop? As I understand it Walthers did not produce that until around 1976. (??) Also you mention the Super Dome was sides only. Was this a complete kit at one time, during the '60's?? I am attaching a photo of the Super Dome I have. This is from the train set that was used at the Wisconsin Dells MINIRAMA back in the '60's. The Skytop I have was scratch built, but I am wondering if the Super Dome was one of the kits built for the 14 car train on this attraction. Thanks!!

You're welcome Jeff. I have never seen the Super Dome listed as a kit ( though I don't have all the catalogs either) only as "sides only" and they're not listed in the '67 catalog at all. I also believe they didn't appear in the catalog until the early sixties as they're not in the few fifties era catalogs I own. If I was to hazard a guess I'd say your version likely employed the Walther sides and perhaps some other kit bash parts with a scratch built dome, but without seeing in detail I can't really tell .  Extremely cool car though, both as a model and to the collectors among us.  Quite a score.

The '67 catalog line drawing suggests the 4864 80' Observation is not a Skytop (hence fictional) but sorry, I have not seen an example of that kit so again cannot be definitive. You'll note, the builder was otherwise on his own for coming up with rest of the Olympian's sleepers, either employing/modifying other Walthers 4800 series kits, or going to the smooth side series  of BC-Models or another manufacturer.  

Opinion, very interesting train to model nevertheless.

Thanks a bunch for the reply and the attached. I'll be able to study them to see what I can figure out.

Really appreciate you taking the tie to send along!

There are 14 cars in my set.

Again glad to help, if you could post some photos (3/4 "mug shots") of the rest of cars some of the members here may be able to ID them, again especially interested in the sleepers. My Wayner consist book indicated the '51 Olympian had a 10-6, and two Touralux sleepers in front of the Skytop slipper-lounge-ob, I would be interested to see how the Minirama builder(s) modeled them .  

Pete

OK Pete, I can post them here. I'll either send the so-so shots or  get them unpacked and take new shots. In the meantime here are a couple of other shots that I took when I first brought them home and placed them around for quick pictures. Not that well versed with all the 2-rail equipment or other Companies that were out there besides Walthers.  But the Company that was hired to build the MINIRAMA was in Creston, Illinois and there was a good amount of authenticity, but not everything was available so they made do on some things, and scratch built, (like the Hiawatha Class A 4-4-2). And we can always e-mail, but perhaps others out there would be interested in seeing these.  Thanks, Jeff

Great looking train Jeff, that "River" series 6 Rmt -8 Dup -4Dbm is a particularly interesting car, not in the catalog and I'm not sure if it was offered in the mid-seventies limited run sets of kits they did for the Twin Cities or Olympian cars. Can you verify if it has a metal or wood roof? The mid-seventies Walther's series kits all came with a metal "wrapper" that fit over the roof.

My brother Jim has a set of the River series car sides, he's pretty sure they're Walthers but thinks they may have been custom cut by Walther's instead of a catalog offering (since we can't find any of them in the catalogs we have)

As an FYI and per Jim, the catalog numbers for the Pullman-Standard Olympian sleepers Walthers sold in the seventies are as follows       4897 80' 14 Section Touralux "Mountain" series,     4898 80' 10 Rmte -6 Dbm "Lake" series,    4899  80' 8 Dbm -Lounge Skytop "Creek" series    Interestingly the "River" series cars were originally intended for the Pioneer Limited, which further suggests they're custom cut. 

Cool stuff, your cars and the A-B-A which I assume are All Nation, all look nicely built and exceptionally well finished, I actually prefer the Armour Yellow scheme over the original Orange-Grey-Maroon as it's the one I remember from my child hood seeing those Hiawathas in Glenview, Northbrook and the Dells.

Pete 

Pete: Thanks for the information, and I sent you an e-mail too. We can always correspond either way.

Jeff

Lovely pics of the Hiawatha Jeff!