No Santa Fe doodlebugs?

[westsidelumber12]

It saddens me that htere are no Santa FE doodlebug, what happend bachmann?

[Guilford Guy]

They stopped producing them a few years ago. Either I may be thinking of a CB&Q one but I think they made an ATSF doodlebug.

[Paul M.]

I think they made an AT&SF doodlebug....

[westsidelumber12]

Well thats great, they have a undercoated one int he correct green but microscale don't make the decal set anymore.

[RAM]

try ebay

[TonyD]

The Santa Fe one that was produced a few years ago was red and silver war bonnet, one or two dressed like that ran on New Mexico branches from the 30's to the 60's, there might have been others. Now that you mention it, haven't seen any in a while. Too bad it could barely pull its own weight, in reality, they ran as power for 2 or 3 car trainsets.

[TexasChief]

There were three altogether. The silver and red Warbonnet, a Santa Fe dark (Pullman) green with a red nose and a Santa Fe green with a cat whisker type logo. I have all three and you're right, they usually pulled one or two passenger cars behind them.

Dick
Texas Chief

[Woody Elmore]

Didn't the Santa Fe also have an articulated doodlebug? The front part was a short power car and it was permanently coupled to the trailer. I remember that there was a brass model imported by a company called Empire Midland that was a clunker.

[Guilford Guy]

M-190. I have a "Classic Trains" issue, describing its later life, as a local passenger train on some random branch line along the ATSF main. Apparently there was a large demand for LCL shipments and mail in that area.

[japasha]

The M-190 was made in HO by Hallmark back in the early 70s. I had to remotor mine as the original motor was huge and  the mechanisim wasn't all that great.

The M-190 was in Pullman green when delivered and later in silverr with the Warbonnet scheme. It originally had four traction motors and pulled frieght cars in mixed train service. later, two motors were removed but it still would pull two or three passenger cars, somtimes with an ex-Super Chief observation car. It is now preserved at the California Railroad museum.  The Santa Fe  had over seventy Gas Electric cars

[Woody Elmore]

I thought the M-190 I had was by another maker.  A friend had one and I saw it disassembled. The drive train was really poor and the motor was the same one that they put into Tyco engines. The owner used a Hobbytown truck and mounted a can motor. The power truck ran nicely when assembled.

I believe the prototype was painted Pullman green with red and white stripes painted on the front of the unit. It must have been quite a sight.

[japasha]

Woody,

It creates a lot of talk when I go to the club with my M190. I also have all three Bahcmann doodlebugs.  I usually pull five period frieght cars with a Santa Fe coach and do local switching with it as the Santa Fe did.  I used the original ower truck with some adapted plastic gears to cut the hoiwl. I have a big Canon can motor in it, there's no problem with power.
I have a lot of equipment in HO that I use only at club layouts. The M-190 and Pioneer Zephyr are real crowd pleasers

[TonyD]

Is the m-190 you mention the one that did the Clovis to Carlsbad line? With a boattail? Have a video of that somewhere, and your model was repowered, regeared and I bet some weight added too huh? I'll add weight to mine someday, I rested some lead sheet on the roof, it immediately got better traction, not great but better....

[japasha]

Tony,

I added six ounces in the motor car. Two more ounces in the trailer. Tracks nicely. I dded a flywheel on the can motor. It helps a lot but the original tower gear drive eats some of the inertia. Just got it out of the box after all this .

Yes, the protoype did do the Carlsbad-Clovis run.

For easy added weight, I use car wheel weights. Easy to cut and self-sticking.

[Redtail67]

The Santa Fe ran some Doodlebugs on the Southern Division (Temple Texas Headquarters0  Silsbee to Somerville, Silsbee to Beaumont, Silsbee to Oakdale Louisiana, and Silsbee to San Augustine on to Longview Texas.

I think they quit in early 1960 timeframe and then used them for some excursion trains after that.