Doodlebug Consist

When that new fangled freedom device called the automobile decreased the number of paying passengers sometime in the mid to late 1920s, the railroads started ending service on many of their branch lines.  The doodlebugs were an early attempt to maintain such service with less cost. The typically ran as a single unit or with a single trailer. Ultimately however, many railroads invested in their own bus lines (e.g. the New Haven had The New England Transportation Company), and later some even invested in airlines (e.g. The Boston and Maine RR). Many bus routes intersected railroad stations that still had passenger service to larger cities and towns.  Doodlebugs also transported mail, milk, and LCL freight on the lesser used lines until even that ended with more trucks on the roads.

I hope it isn't a disappointment, but doodlebugs were not equivalent to locomotives.  Most were incapable of pulling more than a couple of cars, and usually were operated as single-car trains.

• Most only had around 400 horsepower (vs 1500 for a GP7 or 2250 for an E8), and only the front truck had small traction motors.
• They had a one man engine crew, running without a Fireman, saving money.  The train crew was two men instead of three, as on a locomotive hauled train.  If they hauled more than one trailer coach, it required adding (and paying) another Brakeman.

Their purpose was to replace a steam-hauled conventional train manned by a full crew, with a self-propelled combination car that could haul express, sometimes mail, and a small number of passengers, manned by a reduced crew.

You can find a prototype for almost anything: the Boston and Maine had a 600hp motor car that could haul up to four regular coaches.  The motor car had an RPO and a baggage section.  Was it a doodlebug? A locomotive?  The railroad considered it as part of its motor car fleet.  It ran from 1934 until replaced by RDCs in the late 1950s.  There are photos and information on the B&M Historical Society’s web site:

https://www.bmrrhs.org/digital...tin-volume-32-4-2020

Thanks for the replies everyone!  These prompted further research on my part. I had a now obvious misconception that Doodlebugs were from the 50-60 time frame. I see now they were much earlier, hence why I never saw a real one.

The PRR ran several types of gas-electrics cars (later oil-electric), also known as doodlebugs. Most ran alone, but at times there was either a P54 or P70  trailer coach, B60 baggage, or BM54 postal-baggage tagging along. Once in a while on some branches, a R50b reefer was seen behind, or even a milk reefer.

Of the classes of rail cars, really only the Brill 660 model had enough horsepower to pull another car with it. (#4666-4670) It had a small baggage section between the engine compartment and seating section.

The Sunset model is a replica of the Brill 660. Have no idea what the Lionel model version is.

Doodlebugs had different horsepower ratings.  Most ran as single car trains.  Some doodlebugs had 600 HP (switcher horsepower, less than the Pioneer Zephyr) and could pull several trailers.  Doodlebug trains evolved into early streamliners like the articulated Zephyrs.

If you're so inclined, the group Steam Era Freight Cars  (RealSTMFC) had a recent thread "Mixed UP Passenger/Livestock Train" which had photos of "Doodlebugs" hauling short trains as the subject.

One, courtesy of the Great Northern Railway Historical Society, showed a motor car hauling perhaps a dozen boxcars on a long trestle.  Another showed a McKean car hauling two livestock cars.  Another showed a Burlington car towing a few tank cars and a coach on the hind end.

As Tom noted, most were barely powerful enough to move (or brake) themself  let alone tow trailer cars.    And as a side note, the PRR had a sizeable fleet of gasoline powered motor cars and for safety reasons worked to convert them to diesels.   The PRRT&HS had a great article on these recently in the society magazine.

Thanks @Rule292.  I did look up realstmfc and found the article you mentioned. The photos were indeed amazing!

The streamlined Rail Diesel Car (RDC) that began being produced around 1950 could only pull themselves. Railroads who tried to pull even one passenger car with their RDC negated the warranty - and normally saw the RDC fail. This disappointed some railroads that had commonly run a doodlebug with one or more coaches behind. Minneapolis & St. Louis Ry. ended up using an old doodlebug to pull a streamlined coach when their RDC failed.

Really great info @wjstix.  I'm sure not many knew that little kernel of history.  Thanks for sharing.

@PRR Man posted:

The PRR ran several types of gas-electrics cars (later oil-electric), also known as doodlebugs. Most ran alone, but at times there was either a P54 or P70  trailer coach, B60 baggage, or BM54 postal-baggage tagging along. Once in a while on some branches, a R50b reefer was seen behind, or even a milk reefer.

Of the classes of rail cars, really only the Brill 660 model had enough horsepower to pull another car with it. (#4666-4670) It had a small baggage section between the engine compartment and seating section.

The Sunset model is a replica of the Brill 660. Have no idea what the Lionel model version is.

The Lionel/MTH railking version is a shortened model of the Pullman/St.Louis Car Co. Doodlebug. St Louis Car provided the motors, controls, and transmission while Pullman Corp. Made the carbody and interiors.

Chicago Great Western used a doodlebug to haul a sort of quasi-streamlined train. This pic is from 1950:

5fcefb9647d798169303f7ad32f8370e.jpg (691×443) (pinimg.com)

Apparently Gulf Mobile & Ohio used them until 1960; I found this pic from 1958:

index.php (706×473) (trainboard.com)

The LIRR pulled a ping-pong light weight coach behind their single RDC for a while. Later when the pair was operating as the shuttle between Babylon and Patchogue they  pulled an MU RPO behind them to complete the mail route to meet the contract, There are a couple of photos on this site RDCs with RPO And yes it did void the warranty.

That's a good point about RDCs being able to be m.u.'ed together. Railroads did sometime run entire trains that were 3-4 RDCs m.u.'ed together. There have also been situations where an unpowered RDC was used as an emergency coach in a locomotive-pulled passenger train.