Motor cars, nicknamed doodlebugs, were an attempt by many railroads to fold motive power, passengers, and mail and express contracts into one efficient cost-saving package and eliminate assigning a locomotive and rolling stock. The 400 hp M.177 was a 1929 product of the Electro-Motive Corp. with the Pullman Car and Manufacturing Co. providing the carbody.
The Santa Fe had a number of motorcars in various configurations operating throughout its’ system, mostly on secondary routes and branch lines. The M.177’s last assignment was between Pampa, Texas, and Clinton, Oklahoma, in October 1953. The 70-ton vehicle was then stored at Topeka, Kan., “LUGO” – the railroad acronym for Laid Up in Good Operating condition. It was donated to Travel Town in 1958.
Under the direction of Travel Town Project Manager Bryan Reese, M.177 has had its interior put back to its original condition, including overhauling the original Winton engine and reupholstering of the seats. The last major hurdle for him and his team is to acquire a working air compressor to activate its brakes. One of the museum’s other pieces of motive power, an EMD Model 40 switcher, is hooked up to the nose to allow its air compressor to fill the M.177’s tank. Negotiations are underway with another museum to acquire an operational compressor. The engine is fired up and the motorcar operates over a short stretch of track inside the museum for special events.
The ultimate goal for M.177 lies in the Griffith Park Master Plan which includes a planned 2.5-mile railroad from Travel Town to the Los Angeles Zoo. The completion of the railroad is “somewhere in the future.”
This will make the fourth operational piece at the museum. The other two engines are the aforementioned EMD Model 40 300 hp, two-axle, center-cab switcher built for the U.S. Navy in 1942, and a 1,200 horsepower Baldwin RS12 light road-switcher built for the McCloud River Railroad in 1955. They also have a 50-ton American Locomotive crane built for the war department in 1943 by American Hoist & Derrick Co.
For more information, go to www.traveltown.org.
I’ve been getting a lot of 2010 Newswire stories over the weekend too. And now they are advertising for digital freelance reporters. I guess they think that it will fix all their problems.
Geo Pins…….Yes, I can’t go back two pages in history and not get 2010 pages. I can not get to a 2 week old news item. We need a new News Editor who gets out of the politics and fixes the program.
Anyone else getting the Newswire from 2010 the first time they click on, then getting the current one on the second or third try? Must be my computer.
Its: Possessive form
It’s: “It is” or “It has”
“…has had its’ interior…”: Unknown, undecipherable construct, perhaps only applicable to Doodlebugs.
I used to write them to tell them of a problem, but they always replied it was my computer’s problem, which it wasn’t, and then the problem would disappear. I get tired of being blamed for their problems.
It has been fixed.
Computer problem – again!
Where is the Santa Fe doodlebug news item? Trains has a computer problem.