"Doodlebug" Rail Cars (Trains): History, Types, Photos

Last revised: October 23, 2024

While doodlebugs have become endeared by many railfans and historians over the years due to their small size and quaint nature (serving bucolic towns and communities) they actually filled a very important role for the industry.

Developed during the early 20th century these rail cars, most of which were powered with gasoline engines and not diesels, enabled railroads to reduce operating costs associated with light branch and secondary lines that saw either little passenger and/or freight traffic.

Overview

The motorized cars have become known by many names and while it is not quite known where the name doodlebug was derived the car should not be confused with the Rail Diesel Car, or RDC.

This was a specifically designed and marketed single car, similar to its earlier counterpart but developed specifically by the Budd Company and was powered by a diesel engine.

Today, a number of doodlebugs remained preserved at various museums around the country. Provided here is a brief history of this unique aspect of the industry's passenger operations; many "Doodlebugs" served out-of-the-way branch lines and secondary corridors that were abandoned long ago.

Photos

Santa Fe motorcar/Doodlebug M-181 is seen here crossing Walnut Street in Pasadena, California in 1948. This Electro-Motive railcar, completed in September, 1929 as part of order #388, featured a Pullman carbody (80 feet), RPO section, and could produce 400 horsepower. Russ Cole photo. American-Rails.com collection.

History

The earliest history of the doodlebug can be traced back to the General Electric in 1904. It was then that the company's engineer's realized that there may be a market for self-propelled rail cars in the railroad industry.

Of course, they were quite different from similar cars used by the interurban and streetcar industry, which were powered by standard electricity.

These cars would utilize some type of self-contained engine for power. In the case of GE's test car, constructed in 1905, it took a standard Delaware & Hudson Railway baggage car built by the Barney & Smith Company and equipped it with a automobile gasoline engine.

The prime mover was a product of Wolseley Motor Company of Great Britain (interestingly, this company was founded in 1901 just a few years prior to the new car design), retrofitted for use in rail service.

General Electric

GE decided to use this specific engine for two reasons; first, it contained adequate power for their experiment but at the same time did not need such high horsepower as a standard locomotive given that it was only to be used for light passenger and freight duty.

Statistics

First Produced	1906 (General Electric)
First EMC Car	Chicago Great Western M-300 (1924)
Other EMC Suppliers	Pullman Standard, J.G. Brill, Standard-Steel Car, St. Louis Car Company, Osgood Bradley
GE Production	89 Cars (1906 - 1917)
Electro-Motive Production	500 Cars (Approximate)
Horsepower Rating	150 - 900
Length	55 - 80 Feet

As it turns out their hypothesis proved to be correct. Additionally, it used two, 75 horsepower traction motors and a 600 volt generator and was able to carry nearly 70 tons of cargo.

The car became known as GE #1, or D&H #1000, and was tested between Saratoga and Schenectady, New York where it reached speeds upwards of 40 mph.

A year after this car was tested engineers further improved on the first test car and built GE #2, which used a V8 engine that was much lighter than the Wolseley design.

This second experiment used a car built by the Wason Manufacturing Company from Springfield, Massachusetts and overall was more than 50% lighter than its predecessor.

Santa Fe self-propelled rail car ("Doodlebug") M190 (built by the Electro-Motive Corporation in 1932) is seen here laying over at Clovis, New Mexico on June 5, 1959. It will soon make the 184-mile return trip to Carlsbad, New Mexico. Stan Kistler photo. Author's collection.

GE #2 also was the first to actually debut to the public as it tested on a number of railroads including the Minneapolis, Northfield & Southern Railway, Chicago Great Western, Lehigh Valley, and the Delaware & Hudson (this car was eventually sold to the MN&S).

Around 1908 the company debuted GE #3, a third demonstrator that was more powerful and a bit lighter than the previous cars.

It also saw more publicity than its two predecessors. In the end, when General Electric concluded its rail car business to focus on main line electrification projects it sold more than 100 units, many of which were custom tailored to the railroads' specifications.

Electro-Motive

Soon after this time the Electro-Motive Corporation was founded in Cleveland, Ohio in 1922 by H. L. Hamilton and picked up where GE had left off with the express purpose of marketing self-propelled rail cars (which eventually transformed into main line locomotives featuring diesel engines).

During EMC's tenure of doodlebug construction, often considered the era in which the car truly came of age, it utilized car bodies built primarily by Pullman Standard, J.G. Brill, Standard-Steel Car, St. Louis Car Company, and Osgood Bradley.

The designs featured the same setup as GE; a baggage/combination with a sliding door for freight/mail and a rear area for standard coach seating.

For power EMC featured gasoline engines constructed by the Winton Engine Company. While Winton at the time was focused on automobile engines it began collaborating more and more with EMC in the railroad industry.

EMC's first doodlebugs were more powerful than GE's last designs and were rated at around 275 horsepower while using GE traction motors and generators. An early proponent of the motorized rail car was the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific (Rock Island) and it soon began experimenting with its models.

Santa Fe motorcar M160 is seen here in storage at Clovis, New Mexico on November 18, 1967. The Doodlebug worked branch line service in the region until 1966. It was a 535 horsepower car built by J.G. Brill in 1931 and currently is preserved at the Museum of the American Railroad in Frisco, Texas. Tom Hoffmann photo. American-Rails.com collection.

Looking for an increase in power the Rock, in 1927, took traction motors and the power plant from one car and placed it in another.

This setup featured traction motors on all axles (four) with two engines, boosting its output to 550 horsepower. EMC liked the idea so much that it soon built seven units with 800 horsepower for the Rock, using them all for many years.

While early doodlebugs appeared similar to a heavyweight passenger car newer models in the late 1920s and early 1930s had a more boxy appearance and flat cab face with a headlight attached to the hood (and in many cases extra freight/mail doors).

While it is sometimes difficult finding information about doodlebugs today the model actually became very popular for the reasons mentioned above with EMC producing more than 500 units.

Electro-Motive Roster

Serial Number(s)	Order Number	Completion Date(s)	Owner	Road Number(s)
100	-	8/1924	Chicago Great Western	M300
101	-	1925	Lehigh Valley	T50 (Trailer Only)
102	-	8/1924	Northern Pacific	B3
103	-	1/1925	Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México (NdeM)	1
104	-	1/1925	Chicago & Alton	M4
105-107	-	1/1925	Northern Pacific	B5-B7
108	-	4/1925	Demonstrator	Became C&NW #9900.
109	-	4/1925	Northern Pacific	B8
110	-	Empty	-	-
111-112	-	5/1925	Northern Pacific	B9-B10
113-116	-	5/1925-6/1925	Great Northern	2210-2213
117	-	6/1925	Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie Railroad (Soo Line)	M1
118	-	7/1925	St. Louis-San Francisco Railway (Frisco)	2120
119-120	-	8/1925	Chicago & Alton	M5-M6
121	-	8/1925	Grand Trunk Western	15805
122-125	-	Empty	-	-
126	-	8/1925	St. Louis-San Francisco Railway (Frisco)	2121
127-129	-	8/1925-11/1925	Boston & Maine	150-152
130	-	11/1925	Great Northern	2214
131	-	11/1925	Missouri-Kansas-Texas	10
132-136	-	11/1925	Lehigh Valley	25, 29, 27, 26, 28
137-138	-	12/1925-1/1926	Seaboard Air Line	2002-2003
139-140	-	1/1926-2/1926	Wabash	4001, 4000
141	-	4/1926	Chicago & North Western	9900 (ex-demonstrator)
142-147	-	4/1926-5/1926	Great Northern	2300-2303, 2315-2316
148-150	-	6/1926	Chicago & North Western	9901-9903
151-153	-	7/1926	Northern Pacific	B13, B12, B11
154-155	-	8/1926	Mobile & Ohio	1800-1801
156-158	-	9/1926	Missouri Pacific	652-654
159-160	-	8/1926, 10/1926	Missouri Pacific	651, 650
C1-C3	-	5/1925	Rock Island	9022-9024 (rebuilt from McKeen cars)
C4	-	3/1926	Rock Island	9020 (rebuilt from McKeen cars)
161-170	-	8/1926-9/1926	Boston & Maine	195-196, 180-187
171-175	-	11/1926	B&O	6003-6007 (returned to EMC)
176-180	-	11/1926	Great Northern	2317-2321
C5	-	9/1926	UP	M16 (rebuilt McKeen car)
181-185	-	1/1927-2/1927	Union Pacific	M31-M35
186-189	-	2/1927-3/1927	Oregon Short Line (UP)	M65-M68
190	-	11/1927	Oregon-Washington Railroad & Navigation Company (UP)	M99
191-194	-	1/1927	Lehigh Valley	21-24
C6-C7	-	4/1927	Rock Island	9000-9001
195-199	-	4/1927	Rock Island	9045-9049
200	-	3/1927	Maryland & Pennsylvania	61
201-205	-	2/1927-3/1927	Chicago & North Western	9904-9908
206	-	3/1927	Great Northern	2323
207-208	-	4/1927	Burlington	555-556
209-210	-	5/1927	Burlington	570-571
211	-	5/1927	Burlington	585
C8	-	12/1930	Missouri Pacific	600
212-214	-	8/1927, 5/1927	Mobile & Ohio	1820-1822
215-218	-	9/1925	Cincinnati Northern Railroad (NYC)	M100-M103
219-223	-	3/1928	Milwaukee Road	5925-5929
224-226	-	8/1927	Northern Pacific	B14-B16
227-229	-	7/1928	New York Central	M207-M209
230	-	9/1927	Burlington	559
231	-	10/1927	Burlington	572
232	-	9/1927	Burlington	557
233	-	10/1927	Burlington	586
234	-	9/1927	Burlington	558
235	-	10/1927	Burlington	587
236	-	9/1927	Burlington	560
237	-	10/1927	Burlington	573
238	-	10/1927	Burlington	588
239-240	-	10/1927	Burlington	575, 574
241	-	6/1927	Lehigh Valley	20
C9	-	4/1927	Missouri Pacific	626
242	-	11/1927	Oregon-Washington Railroad & Navigation Company (UP)	M98
243	-	12/1927	Toronto, Hamilton & Buffalo	301
244-245	-	1/1928	Santa Fe	M108-M109
246	-	1/1928	Great Northern	2324
247-250	-	1/1928	Chicago & Alton	M15-M18
251-255	-	3/1928	Milwaukee Road	5930-5934
256-260	-	4/1928	Milwaukee Road	5935-5939
261-262	-	2/1928	Seaboard Air Line	2022-2023
263-264	-	2/1928	Seaboard Air Line	2060-2061 (combine cars)
265	-	3/1928	Lehigh Valley	19
266	-	3/1928	Lehigh Valley	18
267-270	-	5/1928	Chicago & North Western	9910-9912, 9909
271	-	5/1928	Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha (C&NW)	2001
272-276	-	6/1928	Chicago & North Western	9913-9917
277	-	5/1928	Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha (C&NW)	2000
278-280	-	7/1928	Burlington	843, 845, 844
281-284	-	7/1928	Burlington	841, 846-848
285	-	7/1928	Burlington	842
286-287	-	7/1928-8/1928	Burlington	525, 528
288	-	8/1928	Burlington	450
289	-	8/1928	Burlington	526
290-294	-	8/1928, 10/1928	Burlington	625-629
295	-	8/1928	Burlington	527
296-298	-	8/1928	Burlington	729-731
299	-	11/1928	Burlington	570
300-301	-	10/1928-11/1928	Burlington	665-666
302	-	11/1928	Colorado & Southern (CB&Q)	401
303-305	-	4/1928-5/1928	Mobile & Ohio	1830-1832
306-311	-	9/1928	PRR	4644-4649
C10	-	6/1928	Santa Fe	M105
C11-C14	-	5/1928-8/1928	Missouri Pacific	625, 627-629
312-316	-	11/1928	St. Louis-San Francisco Railway (Frisco)	2122-2126
317-321	-	11/1928	Chicago & North Western	9918-9922
322-325	-	11/1928	Union Pacific	M36-M39
326-333	-	12/1928	Rock Island	9050-9057
C15-C17	-	5/1929	Rock Island	9005-9007
334	-	12/1928	Burlington	529
335	-	12/1928	Burlington	571
336-337	-	12/1928	Burlington	849-850
338-339	-	12/1928	Burlington	732-733
340-343	-	2/1939-3/1929	Burlington	765-766, 734-735
C18	-	9/1928	Chicago Great Western	1003 (rebuilt McKeen car)
344	-	1/1929	Minnesota & International Railway (NP)	M1
345-346	-	2/1929	Northern Pacific	B18-B19
C19	-	9/1928	Chicago Great Western	1004 (rebuilt McKeen car)
347	-	12/1928	Maryland & Pennsylvania	62
348	-	4/1929	PRR	4665
C20-C21	-	11/1928	St. Louis-San Francisco Railway (Frisco)	2127-2128
C22	-	1/1929	Chicago Great Western	1000
349	-	12/1928	Tonopah & Tidewater Railroad	99
350-352	-	4/1929	Texas & New Orleans (SP)	1010-1012
353-356	-	6/1929	Chicago & North Western	9925-9926, 9928-9929
357-360	-	6/1929-7/1929	Chicago & North Western	9927, 9930-9931
361-362	-	6/1929	Chicago & North Western	9923-9924
363	-	1929	Lehigh Valley	15
C23	-	1/1929	Stelco	24
364-367	-	7/1929	Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railway (C&NW)	2002-2005
C24-C25	-	3/1929	PRR	3905-3906
C26-C27	-	6/1929	Chiriqui Land Company (Costa Rica)	GE6-GE7
368	-	6/1929	Colorado & Southern	402
369	-	1/1929	Lehigh Valley	14
370-371	-	8/1929	Lehigh Valley	16-17
372-378	-	8/1928-9/1928	Santa Fe	M115-M121
379-383	-	9/1929	Santa Fe	M175-M179
384-385	-	9/1929	Santa Fe	M130-M131
386-388	-	9/1929-10/1929	Santa Fe	M182, M180-M181
389-392	-	9/1929-10/1929	Santa Fe	M122-M125
393-397	-	11/1929	Rock Island	9008-9012
398-399	-	11/1929	Rock Island	9013-9014
400-401	-	12/1929	Rock Island	9070-9071
402-404	-	10/1929	Trinity & Brazos Valley Railwa	61-63
405-409	-	8/1929	Great Northern	2332-2336
410-416	-	11/1929, 1/1930	Northern Pacific	B20-B23, B26, B25
417-426	-	11/1929	Victorian Railways	58RM, 63RM, 62RM, 55RM, 57RM, 64RM, 61RM, 56RM, 60RM, 59RM
427-431	-	1/1930-2/1930	Texas & New Orleans	1025-1030
432-437	-	03/1930	Southern Pacific	3-5 (SP), (Northwestern Pacific), 6 (SP), 902 (Northwestern Pacific)
C28	-	11/1929	Burlington	530
438-440	-	12/1929-1/1930	Minneapolis & St. Louis	GE1-GE3
C29-C31	-	11/1929	Chiriqui Land Company (Costa Rica)	GE8-GE10
441-442	-	3/1930	Santa Fe	M126, M183
443	-	7/1930	Great Northern	2338
444-445	-	6/1930	Canadian Pacific	46-47
446-447	-	8/1930	New York Central	X45, X99 (Cleveland Union Terminal)
448-451	-	10/1930-11/1930	Minneapolis & St. Louis	GE25-GE28
452-455	-	7/1930-8/1930	Anglo-Chilean Nitrate and Railway Company	1-4
456-457	-	11/1930	Lehigh Valley	10-11
458-461	-	10/1930	Burlington	9767-9770
462	-	10/1920	Wichita Valley Railway	20
463-464	-	8/1931	Lehigh Valley	75-76 (demonstrators #463-464)
465	-	8/1932	Steelton & Highspire Railroad	30 (demonstrator #465)
466-472	-	1/1931-3/1931	Erie Railroad	5005-5011
473-476	-	3/1931	Erie Railroad	5012-5015
477-479	-	6/1931	Santa Fe	M155-M157
480-483	-	6/1931	Santa Fe	M187, M184-M186
484-488	-	5/1931-6/1931	Santa Fe	M150-M154
489-490	-	8/1931	Canadian Pacific	48-49
491-493	-	7/1931	Minneapolis & St. Louis	GE29-GE31
494	-	7/1931	Minneapolis & St. Louis	GE4
495-496	-	11/1931-12/1931	Missouri Pacific	660-661
497-498	-	1/1932	Canadian Pacific	50-51
499	-	6/1932	Santa Fe	M190
500	-	4/1932	Missouri-Kansas-Texas	M11
501-502	-	8/1932	Canadian Pacific	9009-9010
503-506	-	12/32	Chicago Great Western	1006-1009
507	-	06/33	St. Louis-San Francisco Railway (Frisco)	2124 (2nd)
508	-	2/1934	Union Pacific	M10000
509	E119	05/1934	CB&Q	9900
510	E120	9/1934	Union Pacific	M10001
511-512	Demonstrator	8/1935	EMD	511-512
513-514	E121	-	Union Pacific	M10002-M10003
513	E123	5/1935	Union Pacific	M10001
514-515	E131	4/1936	Union Pacific	M10002A, M10002B
515-517	E122	8/1934	Sperry Rail Service	117-119
516-517	E124	2/1935-3/1935	Lackawanna	425-426
518	E135	3/1935	E135 (demonstrator)	Became Philadelphia, Bethlehem & New England #203.
519-520	E132	5/1936	Union Pacific	M10004A, M10004B
521	-	10/1935	Burlington	9903
522	-	6/1936	Union Pacific	M10005A
523-524	-	4/1936	Seaboard Air Line	1027-1028
525-527	-	6/1936	UP	M10005B, M10006A, M10006B
528-529	-	7/1936	UP	M10003A, M10003B
529	-	2/1935	Boston & Maine	6000
530-531	-	4/1936	Burlington	9901-9902
532	-	8/1935	Baltimore & Ohio	50
533	-	5/1936	Illinois Central	9201
534	-	3/1936	Illinois Central	121
535-536	-	8/1935	Santa Fe	1A, 1B

Union Pacific "Doodlebug" M-29 provides local service along the Stapleton Branch at rural Oconto, Nebraska during the late 1950s. This secondary agricultural corridor was abandoned long ago. Photographer unknown.

Chicago, Burlington & Quincy PMC (Passenger Motor Car) #9845 in branch line service, circa 1956. Location not recorded. This car was manufactured by Electro-Motive in 1928 and scrapped in August, 1961. It was originally equipped with a 275 horsepower gasoline engine and later upgraded with a 400 horsepower diesel. American-Rails.com collection.

Final Years

Many Class Is like the B&O, Milwaukee Road, Pennsylvania, Western Maryland, Santa Fe, Burlington and others all used doodlebugs along with numerous smaller roads finding use for it.

Unfortunately, the Transportation Act of 1958 doomed doodlebugs as it decreased the power states had to regulate railroads in providing passenger services over lightly used branch and secondary lines.

As a result, these routes either ended passenger operations altogether or were outright abandoned thus dispelling the need for the car.

While most were gone by 1960 interestingly Sperry Rail Service found a second life for some cars, which were retrofitted and operated into the 2000s checking for internal rail defects.

Additionally, other cars have been saved and are preserved at museums around the country with some still in operating condition. It has often been asked where the term doodlebug is derived.

As aforementioned, unfortunately, no one knows although it is theorized perhaps the way the car meandered or "doodled" through small towns and across the countryside.

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