A fellow in our neighbourhood gave me this question; he wants to know who ran the last gas powered ‘doodlebug’ and when that was. I would not be surprised if he’s curious about were this thing ran…
I know of one that ran up from Stratford to Goderich sometime in the 30’s but…
What do you mean by “gas”? Gasoline, kerosene, diesel fuel, butane, or some additional/other petroleum distillate?
Mark
Mark; Exactly which wasn’t really pointed out because he wasn’t exactly sure himself ergo I’m just throwing it out as is. I guess the more answers I can find the merrier…[:-^]
The last (and only) doodlebug I rode on was in the mid-1970s on the California Western RR running between Willits and Fort Bragg, CA. While passengers appeared to be all tourists, the doodlebug did make a delivery of bread to the Boy Scouts camp adjacent to the railroad. I believe it was diesel powered, and was similar to or was CW’s M-200 which still exists and operates on the Niles Canyon Railway, an operating museum railroad, in central California.
Mark
I know the GM&O last ran theirs in 1960. Bloomington Ill to Kansas city
During the 90’s we rode a steam train on the California Western RR and passed a loaded doodlebug on a passing siding. This was a time when the CW served a large lumber mill at Ft. Bragg. Now the lumber mill is gone but California State now runs the CW operating trains between Ft. Bragg and Willits with dinner trains and dooblebugs leaving and picking up outdoors persons.
Rob
In that new “doodlebugs” are still being made to old designs (but with modern reliability and safety features), I guess the last time they ran was next summer…
http://www.edwardsrailcar.com/Home.html
Bill
The Minnesota Transportation Museum has a CB&Q doodlebug in their collection
http://www.mtmuseum.org/jsr/roster/cbq9735.php
about which they say:
"CB&Q 9735 was a survivor among Gas-Electric “Doodle Bugs,” remaining in service until 1967. That it is still intact today is remarkable. … In 1949, 9735 was upgraded to a 400 h.p. Lima-Hamilton diesel engine. Sometime after June 1952, the boxy radiator over the cab was replaced by a smooth hump in the roof. Most of the 50’s and 60’s it spent in Illinois towns like Galesburg, Bushnell, and McComb. Although many Doodle Bugs had passenger seating, 9735 never did - its interior is entirely devoted to baggage and mail. Photos of other Doodle Bugs show them pulling standard coaches for extra capacity. CB&Q Doodle Bugs have also been photographed puling short freight trains and pushing wedge plows to clear snow drifts. 9735 was retired in 1967 - the last operating CB&Q Doodle Bug - and sold to Southern Industrial in June of 1969. … "
I imagine most doodlebugs lost their gas engines well before they were retired, so your friend’s question is difficult: does he mean when did the last doodlebug run, or the last gas powered one? There cannot have been too many in use after the mid 1960s. Northern Pacific probably retired theirs about the same time.
By the way this CBQ artifact might be the doodlebug in a famous story by Jim Boyd – the time the Burlington was entirely out of power for the Galesburg to Peoria local freight, so they had to pull an old “retired” doodlebug out of the roundhouse and use it for the local freight turn. This was in the late 1960s. A CB&Q engineer told me that one time in the mid 1960s they had no power available for the local freight to Peoria and back from Galesburg, so they used the excursion steam locomotive 4960,
I believe the Santa Fe ran a "doodle bug right up to the inception of Amtrak (1971) The
unit ran in New Mexico, but I don’t recall between which points.
Santa Fe’s run in New Mexico was covered by a pair of RDC’s and was discontinued some time prior to Amtrak’s inception during Santa Fe’s mass discontinuances in the late 1960’s.
To help clarify, a doodlebug was generally considered to be a Brill gas/electric motorcar, whereas a diesel powered unit is refered to as an rdc, railway diesel car. I don’t know when the last ran, but I think they were in use on some lightly used canadian lines into the nineties. R. Staller
Greetings,
You Tube has videos of several different ones. I searched using doodlebug train and came up with several.
Bob