Convert diesel loco to gas/electric?

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I

ianc

Member
I'm putting together a three line layout ca 1918. One prototype used interurban cars by St. Louis, and one used gas-electric locos made by General Electric. Odd looking things - like something out of steam punk. Has anyone converted a diesel loco (Bachman, ie) to one of these things, or to an interurban unit? (I have six diesel locos I don't need, and while I can buy interurban locos I'd rather do a conversion, but I can't find a gas-electric loco anywhere.)
 
I have not done any. It looks like an easy thing to do- I imagine all you need to do is add the pickups or whatever they are called at the top. You'd have to scratch build them.
 


bnsf971 said:
I think the Bachmann Doodlebug is supposed to be based on a gas-electric.
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It is, but the one I'm looking for is somewhat different. I was wrong - it was made by McKeen Motor Car Company of Omaha. With luck, here's a photo. It had a knife-edge front end they called a 'windsplitter', and round windows. Motor_Car_Roslyn.jpg
 
I was researching Doodlebugs a few months back and came upon the McKeen. I thought it looked really cool.

It turns out that Funaro & Camerlengo make one. http://www.fandckits.com/ It's unpowered, so some hunting will need to be done to get the right look/ power combination. I think I'm going to start with an F-series body and motor cut to size and see what happens.
 
Railrunner130 said:
I was researching Doodlebugs a few months back and came upon the McKeen. I thought it looked really cool.

It turns out that Funaro & Camerlengo make one. http://www.fandckits.com/ It's unpowered, so some hunting will need to be done to get the right look/ power combination. I think I'm going to start with an F-series body and motor cut to size and see what happens.
Click to expand...

Wow!! Thank you. Now if they'd only realize that the world is not confined to the USA, I might be able to get in touch with them.
 
Suydam, IIRC, at one time imported one made of brass. So, I'd also check the used brass stores for one. The drive mechanism on the front truck was unusual to say the least. The mechanism from a Bachmann Doodlebug may be the best place to start, instead of using a diesel. The wheelbase on the trucks wasn't that long.
 
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Cjcrescent said:
Suydam, IIRC, at one time imported one made of brass. So, I'd also check the used brass stores for one. The drive mechanism on the front truck was unusual to say the least. The mechanism from a Bachmann Doodlebug may be the best place to start, instead of using a diesel. The wheelbase on the trucks wasn't that long.
Click to expand...

Thank you. I'll have a look. I've seen one advertised, but only one pic, and not showing much detail. $325, IIRC.
 
Hi,

The front (driving truck) of a McKeen consisted of the front axle with 42" spoked wheels (to which the motor was coupled via a clutch, so it's a gas-mechanical drive) and the trailing axle with smaller 33' wheels...so a Bachmann's gas-electric truck with 33' or 36' wheels on both axles wouldn 't represent the strange look of the prototype. LMB and Ken Kidder also did the same type (55' length) of McKeen - usually $200-300 on ebay
Overland did SP's bigger McKeen (70' length) as well as UP's McKeen's rebuilt as diesel-electric (from 1928, M-23 and M-24, these having a front truck similar to Bachmann's gas-electric).
To get more information you could look for a reprint of McKeen's catalogue of 1912 (from Old line publishers), with diagrams and further descriptions of more types - it shows up on ebay every now and then for app. $10.00

Regards
Norman
 
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Thanks for that information. Summer is here, and my layout work has slowed down quite a bit. I'll look for an LMB
 


My first link was generated from 'my e...' so it had the .de extension. However, the McKeen-model is offered in US-e... (I already have corrected the link, it has now the correct .com extension).
Sorry for the confusion
 
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