Click on any photo for larger view

Click on any photo for larger view

Tuesday

Santa Fe "Doodlebug" M.160




Build Date: 1931
Current Status: Restored and Operational
Road: Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway
Currently at the Dallas Railroad Museum
Originally built by the Brill Motorcar Company as a gas-electric, the M.160 had major rebuilds in 1948 and 1952, when it was fitted with a diesel engine and components from Santa Fe's first E-1 passenger locomotive. M.160 spent much of its life on Santa Fe's vast network of rural branch lines, initially operating between Amarillo, Texas and Carlsbad, New Mexico, and later used on the Wichita, Kansas - San Angelo, Texas route. Its last service was between Carlsbad and Clovis, New Mexico on trains 25 and 26, "The Cavern," painted in the red and silver "warbonnet" paint scheme used for passenger locomotives and pulling round end chair observation number 3197. M.160 was retired in December 1966 and stored at Clovis until donation of both M.160 and 3197 in January, 1969.

4 comments:

Jim Garrett said...

This "doodlebug" is now displayed at the Grapevine, Texas railroad museum.

acptulsa said...

Amarillo-Carlsbad involves a lot of main line running. I believe the author means Amarillo-Lubbock, Tx, connecting the former with the California Special to Houston and connecting the latter with the San Francisco Chief and other Southern Route trains for Chicago.

The Kansas-San Angelo run was over the old Kansas City, Mexico and Orient line, and was the longest motorcar or 'doodlebug' run in the nation. She shared duty with her sisters, M-161 and M-162. These were the only Brill cars on the Santa Fe.

I believe her final assignment was more generally known as 'The Cavern City'. In any case, this was an unofficial name; this was not a named train.

The 1946 rebuild dieselized the unit with a six cylinder EMD 567 engine of 500 horsepower. She, her two sisters, and the articulated EMC car M-190 were the only 'doodlebugs' repowered with the EMD engine.

Eric Liscom said...

I wonder a bit about the accuracy of the statement about M160 using an engine from an E1....considering the second statement about it receiving a 6 cylinder 567 of 500hp...E1's if I remember correctly used early 567 V12's of 1000hp, while B&O EA' s used Winton 201 v12 engines.....in any case all E units used two v12's of 1000hp+ each.
On the other hand, EMD SW1 switchers used 567 V6's rated at about 600hp.

acptulsa said...

That is not accurate. Good catch.

The E-1 actually used two Winton 201-A V-12 diesels of 900 horsepower each. And continued to use them until they were extensively rebuilt--with 1000 horse 567 engines--in 1952-'53. The four Santa Fe doodlebugs repowered with EMD power--M-160, -161, -162 and -190--received new engines bought from EMD for the purpose. Only the M-190 received a 1000 horse V-12; the rest were inline sixes.