The Maryland and Pennsylvania RR used a mail/baggage car as a trailer.
Paul
Early bugs were powered by gas engines slowly converted to diesel engines. Googl the famous Doodlebug crash of Youngstown Ohio. One of the earliest investigations on the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Pete.
The British had such a contraption. Steam driven. Can't remember what it was callEd. NorthBrit might know. shane
A pessimist sees a dark tunnel
An optimist sees the light at the end of the tunnel
A realist sees a frieght train
An engineer sees three idiots standing on the tracks stairing blankly in space
AFAIK, no 'doodlebug' was set up to be able to m.u. with a following car that had controls. That innovation didn't come along until the push-pull commuter trains of the 1960s-70s, with a diesel engine always at one end of the train, and a 'cab car' on the other end. (Before that, the engine had to run around the train at each end of it's run.)
Unlike RDCs of the 1940s-50s, which only had enough power to propel themselves, doodlebugs could pull passenger cars (or some freight cars and a caboose) behind it. Doodlebugs started around WW1, so most often they were seen with a heavyweight car (or old wood car perhaps) behind.
CGW used doodlebugs to pull a 3-4 car heavyweight train, but it was otherwise a regular train. A steam engine or 1st gen diesel could easily substitute. I know M-St.L used a doodlebug to pull a Budd streamlined car in the 1950s.
The Santa Fe purchased in 1950 two P-54 cars from the Pennsy and used them as trailer cars for their doodlebugs (T103, T104). Con-Cor actually made a pretty accurate model of them.
Pics of the prototype can be found in John McCall's "The Doodlebugs" (pg 155).
There was an article in the December Trains about an EMC doodlebug. They made a lightweight trailer for it, but most railroads just attached old heavyweight coachs they had, which taxed the small Winton gas-electric engines.
I use a small 60ft coach behind my Bachman doodlebug as was the practice of the C&NW. Alot depends on whether you are replicating a prototype railroads trains. Some roads converted older outdated doodlebugs into trailer cars while many just used regular heavyweight cars. The M&STL even pulled a streamlined car behind one of it's doodlebugs. You've got lots of options.
Scott Sonntag
I don't know if it's prototypical or not, but I just use a regular coach as a trailer.
Mark P.
Website: http://www.thecbandqinwyoming.comVideos: https://www.youtube.com/user/mabrunton
I built my version of a doodlebug using a modified Rivarossi combine that was supposedly based on a Santa Fe prototype that had only three windows on each side of the passenger compartment. I added a few more windows, and some doors for the engine room and also for a small postal area.
The front truck is from an Athearn diesel, as is the partial frame on which it's mounted, while the power is provided by a can motor that's the same as I used in all of my powered diesels (some of them using two motors and weighing over two pounds each).
I also added a considerable amount of weight, most of it in the clerestory roof. The rear truck is also from Rivarossi, but I equipped it with metal wheels and wipers to help contribute power for the motor.
Here are some photos:
The general population of LPBs on my layout christened it as "The BEE", as it regulaly buzzed in and out-of-town. I normally run it with two trailing Athearn coaches, but it will easily handle much more than a dozen trailing freight cars, although that's not it's usual train.
...and of course, I also added air conditioning...
It's also capable of being unrealistically fast, but that's not how I run it.
Wayne
What coach type was modified. Or not modified for use as a trailer on a doodle bug? What where the mods if they were done? Cab cab car sort of thing with mu equipment?I have a Walter doodle bug kit Not built I want to match it with a proper trailer
shane