Photos of a gas-electric doodlebug at the station in downtown Anderson in 1954. Photos by Gene Yates. Roger Hensley Collection. From LEW: "Roger, saw your photo of the doodle bug and was this at Anderson? Why I ask this is the passenger train to Elk. stopped in April 1950. If this was 53-54 I don't have a reason why the doodle bug would be there. I worked the 8015, rail detector car, two different times in the middle and late sixties but it just had the one car. It did have a porter for the crew who cooked their meals and made their beds. When we were working with them, as pilots, we had one meal, noon, with them. The last time I acted as pilot it was Aug. and the sweet corn was ready out of the garden and I brought some with green onions and we did have a feast. They used pilots engineers, conductors and then stopped and only used an engineer. They stopped using pilots and run them as track equipment with the track foreman in charge after the PC merger. Roger: Yes, it was at Anderson, LEW. And no, I don't have an explanation for it's being there. I've checked the photo several times and have confirmed that it is Anderson and late 1953 or 1954.
It is obviously tied up on a less maintained side or industry track. Not where I'd think it had anything to do with passenger service.
My second reply to this photo.After reading all of the replys about this photo one stands out . About the one where the man hired out in 1947 and they had an extra car for sleeping and cooking.That would fit Rogers photo because my time was in the 60s and they had done away with the extra car.If we could find a number of the engine we would find it was the rail detector car. My folks had some friends that lived in Willow Branch,In.. This small town is located about about 25 miles east of Indy on the old B4 P&E branch. The friends also had the post office and they sent mail out and received it from the train.This must have been in 1935-36 which made me 5 or 6 yrs old. The lady would take me with her to get the mail. They had a pick up rack for out going mail.She would climb up on the stand and connect the bag ,get down and we would wait on the train.Here comes the train and as they say ,sip and it was gone. At this same time the clerk on the train kicked the Willow Branch mail from the train. Yes they had them on the Michigan Branch.I can remember dad saying ,well they had to pull the doddle burg in again. I don't know what the trouble was but they did have a lot of trouble with them. Like I said ,by 1960 the crew did not say anything about trouble by then. LEW
The Central ran their own 2-car version of the Sperry Rail Car until sometime in the 50s. A friend's first job after graduation from RPI in '47 was as a junior engineer on one. He said he lived on the two-car train for 3 weeks straight and was home for one week. IIRC, he said the trailer was rebuilt as a sleeper/diner/kitchen/dayroom for a crew of 6-8, including kitchen/housekeeping personnel. The doodlebug was outfitted with all the test gear and recorders. Roger's photo looks very much like how my friend described his "home" for the first two years of his professional career, that is until he realized there were better ways of earning a living, meeting potential wives, and living like a "normal" human being. Although he did say that as a 22-24 year old snot-nosed newbie engineer, he thoroughly enjoyed those two years, traveling all over the Central's map, before settling down and raising a family.
Lew, I tried my best to enhance the photo to the point I could almost count the rivets down the side, but I couldn't make out a number or lettering anywhere on the doodlebug. Do you remember where the the Central placed the information? I may have been looking at the wrong areas. Roger, do you have a higher-res version, or one from a slightly different angle?
I'll accept the 1954 date from the photographer. The Olds could easily be a 1954. Now as to using the car for track geometry operation, I had not thought of that and it makes a great deal of sense. Yes, the siding was downtown and little used then. I looked at my original and I could not find any numbers. sorry.
The passenger service on my old section of the SAL's mainline (the Charleston subdivision - always called the "East Carolina Line") was a two car (combine & coach) almost always pulled by motor-cars 2027 and 2028. My grandmother often took my oldest sister and I to visit her sister (my great aunt) who lived in the city. Since my dad had the only car in our family we had two means into the city, a .10 cent bus ride (involving a transfer and about 40 minutes in transit) or, Seaboard's #25/#26 - the "Boll Weevil." This latter involved a .25 cent fare and a 5 minute ride to SAL's Grove St. station. Believe that my grandmother, whenever she could - made certain that her grandson got to ride the "Boll Weevil." This was a real wave it down, get on board anywhere in the true sense "accommodation." While I heard that 2027/2028 were kind of "cranky" they were almost invariably the power. Although I did see s/g equipped GP-7s pulling the train (rare) and I know that E units did rarely, I never saw the latter.
Hytec, There is a photo somewhere probably at a later date that I think has the number boards on the leading end. Another somewhere photo shows the doddlebug setting at Jonesboro,In.If I run across them will get back.LEW
