Merry Christmas! Spectrum HO Doodlebug review - Model Railroader Magazine
Bachmann's Spectrum Doodlebug has a well detailed shell with a lot more metal parts than most Spectrum engines. It comes with the coupler and pilot in a small parts bag in a slot in the foam in the box. A very small phillips screwdriver is needed to screw the coupler into the coupler box. While I was purchasing the Doodlebug I noticed that the coupler box swings with the rear truck for tight curves, which I think is pretty neat.[:D] All of the ladders on the sides of the engine are blackened stamped metal parts, making them very durable. All of the grab irons are blackened metal wire. They stick out of the shell a few scale inches like they should, instead of being flush with the shell like on most Spectrum diesels. It has a lot of other detail parts too, like marker lights, a windshield wiper, a bell painted to look like shiny brass and a few tanks under the engine. The light on the front of the engine shines nice and bright at 12 volts, but the light in the passenger area is barely visible. There is an engineer in the cab of the engine, and he looks pretty good too, with a face that's very finely molded. The passenger interior is dark green, and has enough room for about 40 passengers. The motor is in the baggage area, but it's hidden with black construction paper. The paint is very smooth with clear color seperation, but it's not the best I've seen from Bachmann. The printing is very clear and sharp, and there's even very small road numbers on the sides of the headlight. All the window "glass" is very clear and shiny and fits very well in the window holes. The windows also secure the shell, with eight snaps on the sides of the frame. The shell can be removed by using small flat blade screwdrivers to pry the sides slightly, and then gently removing the frame from the shell.[:D]
The Doodlebug test ran smoothly, reaching a maximum speed of around 65 scale MPH. The low speed is very good, and when it's warmed up, I could keep it running steadily at 2 volts at around 2 scale MPH. The current draw at 12 volts running free is 0.1 amps. The maximum stall current is 0.85 amps. I got it to pull 10 farely free rolling freight cars with only a little slippage while accelerating. I didn't use passenger cars because I only have six, and only three of them are free rolling.[:(] All the gears (except for the worm) are helically cut nylon, and run silently at all speeds. The only problem with the gears is that the ones on the axles will sometimes split. I had to fix one on mine by filing down the axle where the gear is and then super glue the gear to the axle. Four of the wheels are driven and all the wheels pick up electricity. I found that the wires going to the rear truck break easily. This can be fixed by milling or filing the holes that the wires come through into longer slots, making them have to flex a lot less. Just make sure the holes are milled going toward the front, or the arm for the swinging coupler will keep breaking the right wire. The wheels are blackened nickle silver, and have RP-25 flanges. The frame and front truck are metal, making the engine pretty heavy.(around 15 oz.) The motor has a 5 pole skewed armature, and runs very well at low speeds. The motor runs quietly, but is heavily amplified by the shell. It has only has one brass flywheel, but the motor spins so freely that it coasts well. The rear coupler is a Bachmann/McHenry plastic knuckle coupler with a cheap plastic spring. The front coupler is a dummy, and it's glued in place and can't be replaced with an operating one. There is very little space in the shell for a DCC board, and the PC board has to have a spot cut so it won't short out a DCC board. The easiest thing to do would be to replace the original PC board with a small 1 amp decoder. The light bulbs are 12 volt, so they don't need to be replaced for DCC.
Over all, I'd say that the Spectrum Doodlebugs are excellent engines. Except for the problems with DCC and the front dummy coupler, they would be an excellent addition to any pre-WW2 layouts.[:D][:D][:D]
