ModelRailroadForums.com is a free Model Railroad Discussion Forum and photo gallery. We cover all scales and sizes of model railroads. Online since 2002, it's one of the oldest and largest model railroad forums on the web. Whether you're a master model railroader or just getting started, you'll find something of interest here.
Years ago the 19 year old in the living room who will be leaving for South Korea in 3 days to report to his first post as an army MP gave me for Christmas an inexpensive Bachman F-unit. Of course, it has no place in a 1930s-era short line, but I have hoped to repurpose it mostly for sentimental reasons, so I'm figuring on kit-bashing it into a freelance doodlebug. (I've got a copy of the old Art Curren story in which he does the same with, I think, an Athearn SW-7.)
I already know that I will need to replace the side frames on the F-unit trucks, but here is my one concern. I'm pretty sure that the wheels are a scale 42 inches. Pretty much all of the doodlebug I've been seeing in old pictures look like they're probably 33 or 36 inches. Of course, I'm not planning to follow a particular prototype, but I would like to think that it would be plausible.
So those of you with more historical and prototypical knowledge than I do... Can I get away with this?
You are CEO of your own railroad. Do as you wish. I think that going to a smaller wheel size would essentially take your F-unit out of the picture for this project. I'd consider ways to either make the wheels appear smaller or put some sort of shroud over them. Aside from that, I'd look at a different frame, which would go against your goal of using the F-unit
Here's a Milwaukee Road unit that might be what you're looking for. The unit itself is a doodlebug in that it's powered by a small engine and front truck. The engine bay is now an express/freight compartment. It usually pulled a coach for passengers. http://donsdepot.donrossgroup.net/mil5900t.jpg
That is the best 'out' I guess -- I need to remember that many Doodlebugs were quite literally "freelanced" -- or, I should say, "kitbashed" -- by the roads that ran them rather than being bought "off the rack" from a manufacturer. I've also done enough nosing around on the Web the last couple of days to see that there was a period in the late 1800s when 42-inch wheels were rising in popularity for passenger cars. So I can probably let go and move forward on this now
A lot of railroads had some really creative people in their shops and some times they built what they needed. I have posted this picture before, but it shows the creativity of the shop people. This little critter was built the the Milwaukee Roads shop people in Deer Lodge, MT to move their electric locomotives onto the turntable and into the roundhouse. It looks like it was built on an Alco truck. It was powered by an extension cord. I can remember watching this little guy when I was a kid visiting relatives who worked for the Milwaukee Road in Deer Lodge.
I am sure that a lot of other railroads also built what they needed if it wasn't readily available for sale.
