I recently came across my four 1st run of the Bmann doodlebugs that I had tucked away and forgotten. Fellas had last run after I had converted three to different body styles using an older doodlebug shell that was last made maybe 20 years ago. After a relubing of all four I put them on my test track and after an hour or so had two running noisy but flawlessly. The other two were hopeless cases so back to the workbench with both. After tinkering with one last night and determining that the pick-up system was at fault I set out to try and improve that by burnishing the contact points on the chassis and the wheel wipers. Big problem was the too liberal application of blackening to everything. Had it running on a 9 volt battery by the time I stopped last night. The 2nd one had bigger issues. Bmanns idea of doing a split frame on these involved installing a small section of electrically isolated metal riveted to plastic at each end for one side only. Clever idea on somebodies part but in reality a total Rube Goldberg Idea. Why they could not have done the chassis as two sections separated by a plastic strip for isolation I don't know. I guess it was too simple. The weak point I found was that these little sections mounted by protruding short plastic pegs that fit in holes in the metal chassis which fail miserably including breaking. I have drilled out the locations of the remains of those pins and Installed some 3/64th styrene rod to replace the broken pins and then drilled out the broken stubs from the chassis. I also used a small wire brush to burnish the contact areas on the chassis and the little strips and will later burnish the contact pieces that are the wheel wipers also. I also found during my servicing that the clips that contact the motor off the small circuit board also had excess blackening that completely blocked electrical contact on the one that I am now working on so I burnished the inside of those also. So after the ACC sets on the new pins and they get trimmed, and the motor and trucks dry out from being in the ultrasound bath I will attempt to reassemble this critter later and then try them out on the test track. The photo below shows where I burnished off the blackening and the new pins installed on what passes for an attempt at a split frame. This is my first real attempt at a major repair job since the stroke last year basically took away the use of the left hand for anything other than a paper weight. The left isn't yet fully coordinated with the right so the big challenge is going to be getting this back together. The next challenge is whether it will run or does it become a parts donor. I am also examining the notorious white plastic gears and split axles for cracks and so far luck is with me there.
After about six hours of saying some choice words, calling Bmann some names not repeatable in mixed company or around children, I finally got to the test track phase. The one I worked on last night hit the track running great but sounding like a 747 at full power takeoff. 2nd unit that needed all the aforementioned repairs wanted to be balky so I tweaked it a bit more and called Bmann a few more names for designing such flimsy truck wipers. Got it back on the track sans shell just in case and so far it has been purring around the test track at a stately scale 50 MPH. At a low speed these guys are fairly quiet but ramp up the power and sounds like three threshing machines are in the room. Picture shows the one unit running without shell and the other unit is posed beside the Bmann version showing the different front ends roofs and sides. Where the Bmann doesn't have an RPO section these bodies do. So far I am batting 4 for 4. And the black lump behind the units is my infrared thermometer so I can check the motor temps after running a bit.
Welcome to the Calling Botchman Everything In The Book Club! Hairball engineering is NOT limited to Nano scale by any means.
Well so much for the 4 for 4 record. Mr. Murphy reared his ugly head about an hour into testing with the one I had spent the time on today flat giving up because of pick-up problems rearing their head again. Decided that it isn't worth anymore effort and it is now a parts donor. So I had the three running well and seemly getting a little quieter. Then Mr. Murphy reared his ugly head again and one of the three suddenly developed a horrible squall when I decided to run them in reverse for awhile. Danged motor bearings and I just lubed them a few hours back. Ran everything back in forward for awhile but the same offending unit decided to start squalling again. Okay so now I am at 2 for 4. Atleast my Sperry car is running fine along with my other GN unit. And I now have a donor loco to rip the motor out off and reinstall into the squalling one. So tomorrow I will install the good motor out of the poor running one and maybe I will be back to 3 out of 4. Now debating on whether to buy one of the newer units that looks like it has a bit different chassis frame to get the other one operational or maybe to take one of the LL FA-2s I was going to get rid of and stretch the frame to make a new power unit that has better pick-up. The LL FA-2 option is cheaper and I already have it in hand and plenty of styrene and wire. And it would be a lot more reliable than messing with what could be another iffy mechanism that has doubled in price since I bought these. Anyway a photo of the three before one decide to head south again on the test track.
If you're weren't already fluent in cussin', you must be by now. That many hours banging away, I envy your patience.
I just got finished getting my first run bug running. After some lubrication (actually removing it) and cleaning the wheels, it finally ran in both directions. I ran it for a couple of hours and it quieted down considerably - then I put the shell back on - and it became noisy again - seems to indicate the shell might be acting as a resonator.
Actually changed out motors pretty fast but the danged squalling is still present so I need to look at the clearances on the flywheel. The universals are all plastic and so are the truck gears so it must be the motor alignment and the flywheel because it definite sounds like metal on metal. And there is plenty of lube. And of course the danged flimsy wipers are not totally contacting again. Got to see what is in my parts box. I did break out an FA-2 and looked at it and I think that repowering can be done for the 4th one. And the Bmann truck side frames are removable so it is possible to retro those sideframes to the mechanism. But the night is getting late for this old geezer and being retired I have loads of time to mess with these.
Please tell me one of those Doodlebugs is lettered for the W&OD! I think I sold all of my DC doodlebugs and got one from the new DCC release.
I'd like to know also. I painted a DC version doodlebug for my home road and I'd rather not have to spell out "Wilmington and New York" with decals again if I can avoid it.
As far as I know there were no body changes done between the two versions, the change occurred in the chassis to adapt it for DCC so the first run shell should just simply slip on the 2nd run mechanism. However two sources where one can confirm that since I do not have the newer version. One of two ways to check is at Mark's site http://www.spookshow.net/loco/doodbug.html the other is to go to Bachmann's web site and check under parts and their diagrams of which I have one printed out and laying by my workbench. In my references to old and new shells I am not referring to Bachmann except in the new shell description or the first run. Many years ago someone made a doodlebug kit that had a floor as part of the kit and featured an RPO compartment along with baggage and coach section. Supposedly that was to be powered with the truck and motor from a GP-9 however I could never find the model version that was supposed to be the donor mechanism. So these kits laid in storage for a long while until Bmann came out with their doodlebug. Since I had about six of these kits to do some kit bashing with and the first run Bmanns were being found on the market cheap I bought four, one to be used as is, the others just for the mechanisms. That gave me the materials to create my Sperry car, two different versions of GN gas electrics including one all RPO and baggage, and the only solid Bmann unit became one of the SP&S units. Here is a photo showing the differences in the body styles with the red one on top being from the kit. Here is a photo of one of the kits that is on the Bmann mechanism and you will notice that it has a different front and radiator treatment, exhaust location, and a different roof. Since I bashed an all baggage section with this the difference in body lengths was easily taken care off since the Bmann was about 10 scale feet longer. And no I did not have a W&OD version. The unaltered Bmann version is the one that is currently dead in the water and that is my SP&S version. And that is okay since the prototype had a short life on the SP&S anyway. Evidently the 2% grades on the Goldendale Branch finished doing it in and it finished out its life as a M of W car non powered. I continued to run the two that would run last night for awhile and they did quiet down considerably after several hours of run time. Still messing with the squaller and howler and I will see what can be done with it later today. As a side note the possible donor mechanism of a old plastic framed FA-2 was checked to see if it would fit under the shell of the DOA one and it appears that it will with a minor mod. So for me that still remains as a much cheaper and more reliable fix than a new mechanism for the one. And that FA-2 ran around the track last night far quieter than the Bmanns in fact almost silent. The only real sound being the wheels on the track. My experience in real life with these is that they were relatively quiet and they could coast along the track and sneak up on you before you knew they were there.
It is curious that your doodlebug shell that has the Post Office apartment is somewhat shorter than the Bachpersonn. I have a similar shell that is slightly longer than the B-mann. I did not have to do anything to get it to go onto the Bachmann power chassis. I can adjust the position so that the door opening aligns with the steps on the shell. It will be necessary to enlarge the opening along the bottom of the shell to make it look proper. Further there is a slight bow in the shell where the aft truck is. It appears that the contact plate for the aft truck is causing the bow. There appears to be a choice in dealing with this: 1. Dremel the slight excess in the contact plate. 2. File off some of the inside of the shell. On the shell that has the Post Office apartment, it appears that there is some extra length aft of the passenger entry door. This would allow for the addition of window openings so that the doodlebug could operate in either direction without turning. You would, of course, need to add a pilot, as well.
The older version of those shells from over 20 years back is shorter which meant for at least one version I had to trim some of the Bmann chassis for one getting rid of the rear coupler mechanism and a little overhang. I put a small section with the steps from the original kit there which gave the place to body mount a coupler. Since the rest of the bodies were a kit bash from the 5 remaining kits getting the length to match was not an issue. The Sperry car used two of the Bmann bodies for cab ends which meant the rear coupler swing mechanism had to go on that one also but again I could build to the mechanism length for it also. Also my cars were built around 2000 about two years after Bmann came out with their version. So it may be that the kits that I had were even older than the 20 years I stated since they were designed for one of the European GP mechanisms around at the time. It has been a lot of years since I have seen these kits and I haven't the foggiest idea who made them since it has been too far in the past. They did have excellent detail cast in and the details were very sharp and clean.
They (the original release) certainly are noisy at high speed and I found it was the motor itself which contributes a lot to that in mine. I removed the motor and held it in my hand as I revved it up and it vibrates pretty badly. The loose arrangement of the universal doesn't help either. I have always meant to take the motor back out and balance it but never have. Doug
Well I am back to 3 for 4 in my doodlebugs. Took the squaller apart this late AM and upon close examination could see where the flywheel was rubbing the frame on the bottom. Since the motor is mounted in a box like separate frame on these models and then attached to the mainframe by a set of machine screws I decided on a simple fix. Took some .010 thin styrene strip about .100 wide and glued four strips equally to the motor box bottom so it would set level. While at it I went at the pick ups again and now have almost all the blackening off the wheel contact side and then polished the frame contact surfaces one more time. Little fella is now churning around the test track without a bit of hesitation or any light flicker except when passing over one turnout set of points. I am not even going to hazard a guess as to why a motor mount with fixed attachment points would decide to shift and even how but it did and so far I have fixed it. Of course before I tested it I had to coax a very comfortable almost three foot long 18 pound tomcat to choose another sleeping spot without incurring the big guy's wrath for disturbing his nap.
In the continuing saga of the doodlebugs I am now back to 4 for 4 with my recalcitrant last unit running laps. I may have invented a few words with this one, not repeatable here. After having a wire break, fortunately right at the solder point, and crawling on the floor looking for a tiny screw. I had to watch the motor temp in this one as the slow starting speed and resistance while the lube was getting worked in was causing it to work much harder. However it continues to pick up speed on the laps. Still is noisy. Not like the threshing machine but more like a high speed blender with a turbo charger. However having determined that the FA-2 chassis will work I am reserving four for future use in repowering that I was going to sell. The two day episode with these reminds me of the famous and failed attempt to salvage my Bmann 4-4-0s and I think as time goes by these older versions will probably head down the same road therefore the reason I am reserving the FA mechanisms. So after supper I am going to attempt to get all the wires tucked back in and the body back and run it some more before I put it away.
I repowered all of my old Doodlebugs with the newer DCC-equipped power chassis. The old shells fit perfectly and the new mech is much quieter. Cheers, -Mark
The quieter part sounds good to my ears. Did they change the pickup wipers? Squinting at your photos and Bmanns parts drawings it appears they may have.Those flimsy things were a weak link in the power feed. Just finished surfing the web with the idea in mind of the newer chassis. Looked at prices for the newer version and getting over sticker shock will take awhile. The cheapest I can find one is about double what I paid for my 1st edition ones and some are close to the $180-$190 range. Looking at some heavy change if I decided to go that route and repower all four. So I may just explore the FA-2 stretched chassis option If I need to repower.
Dang Nabbitt and I was hoping. What I found during servicing and cleaning was that those are flimsy and touchy little devils. I guess today I will see if the original truck side frames can be grafted onto the FA trucks as my possible power replacement and look in one of my parts boxes to see what other type of wipers I may have that are more sturdy. While I do finally have my four back up and running it took no small amount of tweaking to get those wipers right especially on the front power truck. Unfortunately to get to the worm gear and the truck gears for the purposes of cleaning and lubing you have to remove the danged front truck from the body especially if one is cleaning the contact points. The rear truck is a piece of cake to service. The reason I have been looking at the FA-2 is because of the old plastic frame design. Easy to split and extend and a strong motor. The rear truck gets de-geared and only the electrical pick-up retained and I might try to adapt the Bmann lightboard to it since I will have a lot of room. I have two of the bodies that are either all RPO and baggage or 3/4ths RPO and baggage so the mechanism will be well hidden in those. Also testing the FA-2 last night along with the doodlebugs established that mine have a nice slow speed crawl again making them suitable candidates. I will also need to retain as much weight as I can which is one of the reasons that the FA unit performs as well as it does. Testing my doodlebugs last night revealed that they are hurting in the pulling power end and slow down on 11 inch radius when pulling a trailer car and even more noticeable on the 9.75 track. So I have a early Fall late Summer project lining up here. Hopefully if successful I will end up with one or two spare original mechanisms that I can put aside for later use to keep the others running especially my Sperry car. I am afraid as the first generation mechanism ages and racks up runtime that eventually, like my experience with the 4-4-0s, these guys will fail. I sometimes think that with some of Bmanns past offerings they should be stamped with a use by date on the box like a container of Cottage Cheese.
