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Posted - January 07 2018 : 3:48:24 PM
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For some time, now, I've been wanting to build a doodlebug. It's not so much that it's important to the operation of my layout. I just wanted to build one.
My starting point was a Bachmann street car and an MDC shorty combine.
Originally I planned an arched roof, but later decided on a clerestory roof, so the extra roof wasn't used. I had an extra underframe, so I left the one from the combine car intact, in case I wanted an assembled one in the future.
I used the power truck and its mount from the street car, and the body of the combine.
I also had a pilot from a Mantua Pacific (minus the steps and air pumps) around and used that on the doodlebug.
I used the rear half of the MDC underframe and an archbar truck for the rear wheels, platform and coupler pocket.
For more electrical pickup, I made wheel wipers by soldering a copper mounting wire and some flexible insulated wire to some .010" phosphor bronze wire. The end of the copper wire is wrapped around the flexible wire's insulation to keep the wire from bending and fraying at the solder joint.
I drilled holes in the truck bolster and inserted the copper wire then wrapped it around the bolster to secure it. The bronze wire is bent to touch the wheel backs.
Here's the rear truck mounted on the car.
This shows the connections between the rear and front truck inside the car.
Side windows are cut in the front and then framed for the moterman's cab.
The holes were drilled and then carved rectangular with a hobby knife.
The headlight will get hot, so I used an old hollow brass rivet for it and mounted that on wood to protect the plastic car body. The yellow grill is a piece of roof walk from a scrapped out covered hopper. It'll represent the radiator. The wood part is epoxied to the plastic body.
I soldered on a piece of copper for a heat sink and then inserted the light bulb.
Here the light bulb leads are connected and a weight is added. The inside is painted black so it's harder to see in the windows.
Wire railings and a brake wheel are added to the rear platform.
Here's the front again. An uncoupling lever and an air operated bell are added to the pilot. The bell is an old Mantua bell with a hole drilled in the top and a wire added to represent the air pipe. This sort of bell is mounted rigid and the air only moves the clapper.
A couple of tanks hide the general lack of underbody detail.
The clerestory roof was shortened up a bit to reduce the overhang in front where there's no end platform.
The car is lettered TW for the Tabor and Waldo and numbered M1. In the early days of doodlebugs and other self-propelled cars, numbers were prefixed with an M for motor.
Doodlebug M1 makes a stop at Tabor depot.
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Posted - January 07 2018 : 4:18:03 PM
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Wow!! Amazing craftsmanship, scsshaggy!!!! Very Well Done!
"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven." - Matthew 5:16
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Posted - January 07 2018 : 4:58:02 PM
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Excellent work! I like seeing all your in-progress shots.
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Posted - January 07 2018 : 7:11:28 PM
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now do a caboose hehe
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Posted - January 07 2018 : 9:31:16 PM
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Cool project Don and nice piece of equipment for the Tabor and Waldo. The way you fabricate those electrical circuits amazes me.
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Posted - January 07 2018 : 9:37:55 PM
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Posted - January 07 2018 : 10:19:12 PM
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Thanks for all the kind words.
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Posted - January 08 2018 : 10:18:08 AM
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THAT IS SO COOL!
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Posted - January 08 2018 : 1:40:40 PM
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quote:now do a caboose hehe Originally posted by microbusss - January 07 2018 : 7:11:28 PM
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Been there. Done that. Oddly, I didn't get the tee shirt. http://www.tycoforums.com/tyco/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=15512
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Posted - January 08 2018 : 6:53:59 PM
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quote: yeah but I mean one with a MOTOR in it!
that caboose does remind me of the one the Get Along Gang used for their Clubhouse Caboose
Edited by - microbusss on January 08 2018 6:55:25 PM
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Posted - January 10 2018 : 9:46:44 PM
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This is a really neat kitbash project, very well done! Now I wish I hadn't sold my Bachmann trolley on eBay. One little suggestion, add some exhaust stacks on the roof.
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Edited by - Srenchin on January 10 2018 10:00:33 PM
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Posted - January 12 2018 : 1:26:25 PM
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quote:One little suggestion, add some exhaust stacks on the roof. Originally posted by Srenchin - January 10 2018 : 9:46:44 PM
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Contemplating that featureless roof, I think you're right. I looked at pictures of how various doodlebugs handle exhaust. Most just had straight stacks out the roof. These would need tin cans over them when not in use to keep out the rain.
Strasburg's doodlebug has a single exhaust pipe with one of those flappy covers on it like they put on tractor exhaust pipes. It has a tar paper roof, so people traipsing up there to put a can on the exhaust would not be good. This is pretty similar to what I have going with the clerestory roof on mine, so I chose to follow their lead. Theirs also comes out the middle of a sort of roof vent in the center of the clerestory. I didn't think this vent was strictly necessary for mine, because my clerestory still has windows. I'll run the exhaust out a pipe with a double walled flue, instead. Aesthetically, I think it would also look better alongside the clerestory than on top, and so it shall be.
Another feature of Strasburg's doodlebug is a smoke jack from a coal stove. Apparently, the heater core from the engine is not enough. I plan to follow their lead with the stove.
This meant modeling an exhaust pipe with the flappy cover (I bet that has a real name, but I don't know what). I ended up using a small piece of brass tube for the pipe, and a pin head for the round cover. The pivot and mounting strap are thin copper soldered around the tube. The wider part that protects the roof from the hot exhaust pipe is the hollow plastic shaft of an ear swab.
The smoke jack models the type where the rain cover is just a piece of sheet metal bent above the end of the stove pipe. The stove pipe is copper wire. The rain cover is thin copper soldered to the end. The wider double walled flue is part of the ink tube from a used-up ball point pen.
This view shows how the smoke cover fits on the smoke jack:
The exhaust pipe and smoke jack will go in holes drilled in the roof. I've glued extra layers of plastic to the inside of the roof so a deeper hole will hold them straighter:
I'm now waiting for some paint and glue to dry before final assembly.
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Posted - January 12 2018 : 4:14:27 PM
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Glue and paint are dry and things are assembled. Here's the end result:
The roof does look a little less plain.
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Posted - January 12 2018 : 5:08:42 PM
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that looks good
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Posted - January 12 2018 : 6:10:57 PM
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Yep.
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Posted - January 12 2018 : 6:32:22 PM
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Nice! That looks superb!
"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven." - Matthew 5:16
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Posted - January 13 2018 : 10:32:09 AM
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I looked it up, they are called "Rain Caps." Your artistry is on the level of the great John Allen. I would love to see a video of this gem gliding through the landscape.
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Posted - January 13 2018 : 6:34:37 PM
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Thanks for the kind words, guys. And thanks, Chops, for the real name of the rain caps.
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Posted - January 13 2018 : 8:34:12 PM
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Pay me with a video!!
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Posted - January 14 2018 : 8:30:22 PM
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quote:Pay me with a video!! Originally posted by Chops124Â -Â January 13 2018Â :Â 8:34:12 PM
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Here 'tis: https://youtu.be/hKDMhWi-8C8
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Posted - January 14 2018 : 8:58:08 PM
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Great video Don. And it looks like the motor car is performing just fine and getting it's jobs done. Cool layout to run trains on.
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Posted - January 15 2018 : 09:02:52 AM
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Excellent video! Your layout is nicely scenicked - and looks very realistic!!
"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven." - Matthew 5:16
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Posted - January 15 2018 : 6:15:21 PM
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Thanks some more for more kind words.
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Posted - January 16 2018 : 6:08:43 PM
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quote:Glue and paint are dry and things are assembled. Here's the end result:
The roof does look a little less plain.
Originally posted by scsshaggy - January 12 2018 : 4:14:27 PM
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Excellent, now the model looks almost complete, all you need now is a horn!
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Edited by - Srenchin on January 16 2018 6:15:58 PM
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Posted - January 17 2018 : 01:48:49 AM
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COOLEST VIDEO EVER. In two minutes of compressed time, we follow the little M1 on its day-in-the-life. Brilliant.
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Posted - January 17 2018 : 08:34:39 AM
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quote:Excellent, now the model looks almost complete, all you need now is a horn! Originally posted by Srenchin - January 16 2018 : 6:08:43 PM
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I didn't have one, nor did I have a convenient source. I know where I could mail order one, but their shipping would cost more than the horn, so I only like to mail order when I'm buying enough to take real advantage of the shipping. I also haven't figured out a clever way to make one. If I do get or figure out how to make the horn, though, its home awaits.
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Posted - January 22 2018 : 5:11:37 PM
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Shakespeare notwithstanding there are those who think sound and fury do signify something. For their comfort and edification, motorcar M1 now has an air horn:
I wasn't at all sure this would work, but I thought I'd give it a try. To get an air horn for doodlebug M1, I decided to turn one from a piece of heavy copper wire. I chucked a piece of wire in a drill:
As the wire turned, I filed it into as close to a horn shape as I could manage:
I held a razor saw to the wire to cut some excess off of the ends:
To mount the horn and to represent the air line to the horn, I drilled a .020" hole and soldered in a wire:
I added a collar of insulation from phone wire to space the horn above its mounting surface:
Here's the horn, finished and painted:
The mounting wire is threaded through a hole in the roof and bent to brace itself between parts of the roof and a piece of sprue glued in alongside it.
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Posted - January 22 2018 : 5:45:14 PM
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Damn good job on that horn shaggy. Especially since you did it without a lathe.
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Posted - January 22 2018 : 8:51:32 PM
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That's pretty cool Don. I've done that sort of thing when I needed a non-conductive bushing for a Mantua locomotive coupler. Drill press lathe, heck yeah.
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Posted - January 23 2018 : 10:45:14 AM
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What a hoot!
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Posted - January 23 2018 : 3:05:58 PM
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Thanks for the kind words, guys. It's nice when you don't have to blow your own horn.
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Posted - January 23 2018 : 8:25:36 PM
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quote:
Wow, when I suggested that you add an air horn I wasn't expecting you to make one from scratch! Very well done!
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Posted - August 09 2019 : 9:36:48 PM
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Check out this little doodlebug running in this video!
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Edited by - Srenchin on August 09 2019 9:38:15 PM
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Posted - August 10 2019 : 10:02:59 AM
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Glad to see this thread up again; it would do John Allen proud. A lot of fun seeing this remarkable kitbash swim effortlessly from point to point and over the landscape on its daily rounds. Favorite scene is it pausing at the little red depot across from the Ford pick up dutifuly paused, that and the trestle crossings, where it assumes the flight of a large bird. I'd reckon this to be one the best videos of the year.
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Posted - August 10 2019 : 8:28:24 PM
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quote: Glad to see this thread up again; it would do John Allen proud. A lot of fun seeing this remarkable kitbash swim effortlessly from point to point and over the landscape on its daily rounds. Favorite scene is it pausing at the little red depot across from the Ford pick up dutifuly paused, that and the trestle crossings, where it assumes the flight of a large bird. I'd reckon this to be one the best videos of the year.
Originally posted by Chops124Â -Â August 10 2019Â :Â 10:02:59 AM
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Thanks. I'm flattered, especially by the John Allen reference. While I don't rise to the Wizard of Monterrey's level of modeling, I do love the era of model railroading that was largely shaped by him, and I hope my own layout reflects it.
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Posted - July 07 2022 : 3:43:52 PM
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I remember this nice project. Any recent runs with this one Don,?
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Posted - July 07 2022 : 6:42:07 PM
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quote: I remember this nice project. Any recent runs with this one Don,?
Originally posted by wks - July 07 2022 : 3:43:52 PM
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I run it from time to time in normal operation with the rest of the layout. I've added a trailer to it that gives it practically stall-proof electrical pickup. That makes it more fun to run.
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Posted - July 07 2022 : 11:03:01 PM
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Definitely a quality job on every aspect....
How long did it take you from start to finish...???? What a lot of people here don't realize is the time it takes to do that type of work. This is something one cannot crank out in a few hours....
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Posted - July 07 2022 : 11:04:31 PM
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Delete Dup post.....
Edited by - AF Kid on July 08 2022 09:21:29 AM
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Posted - July 08 2022 : 08:41:41 AM
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quote:How long did it take you from start to finish...???? Originally posted by AF Kid - July 07 2022 : 11:04:31 PM
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I don't even remember, now. Trust that it took a while. I'm not very quick in projects like this.
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Posted - July 08 2022 : 1:06:22 PM
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