I ran across a Bachmann Doodlebug from their Spectrum series and before taking the plunge would appreciate any info. Anyone have any opinions on performance, DCC conversions, tweaks or anything. Thanks in advance. Andy "Tetsu Uma"
I have several of them, and me personally, I love em.. that said, they are Bachmann, altho the Spectrum series. Even so, they aren't the best running out of the box, but with a little tinkering, can be made to run very well. I taken some right out of the box that takes more tinkering than others that may run great out of the box, Typical Bachmann quality consistancy. I like em, and buy them when I can get a good deal on them. As far as DCC, they are very easy to convert, with loads of room inside to put any decoder of your choice. They weren't designed with DCC in mind, so you do need to use the hard wire decoders, isolate the motors ext like you do any non DCC ready unit, but there is gobs of room inside, and again, not hard to convert at all... I will continue to run the doodlebug until something that looks as nice as I think they do comes out..
I agree with Tudor in all respects. There is only one truck driven, but it runs pretty well, if noisily. It will pull another car--I use it with an old shorty heavyweight that is either Bachmann of Rivarossi.
Haven't done it but I bet the TCS split board decoder would do the trick. Can't recall the pn. It works on the TDC I think it would be pretty much the same type install.
These are good runners. They are a bit noisy. They have one truck powered and both trucks live. Mine will pull six RR HWs, on RR trucks, up a one per cent grade at thirty five SMPH. The MT conversion is 1133. I would recommend them to anyone.
I seem to have acquired 6 of them :tb-biggrin: They run quite well, some are a bit noisy and my best one is very quiet (UP - go figure!) B&O, ATSF,GN (2), UP, SP&S.
do you model rock island in HO or N scale imodele RI in HO would you happen to know where i could buy a set of HO hand rails for a atlas master series GP-40 GARY
I "Milwaukified" one last fall and it runs very well. At the time of aquisition it was used and abused so it took a bit of cleanup and light repair to the mech but the results were better than expected. I cut off the front portion of the original light board and used the original motor contacts and track pickup on the piece that was left. A Digitrax DZ125 fit in place of the removed board section and a micro LED was installed in the relocated headlight. Here's a link to Spookshow's locomotive enctyclopedia that gives more information: Bachmann (China) EMC Gas-Electric Doodlebug Jim
My ATSF Doodlebug is a little noisy, but is does run very well, and was converted to DCC. Playing with the motor frequency drastically reduced the noise level. I am not sure how many cars it will pull because I never thought about trying. All things considered, if I cam across a few more I would be tempted.
