I received my 2004 Walther's catalog last week. Was looking through it and noticed that Walther's is coming out with some Doodlebugs soon. They look just like the Bachmann ones. I also noticed that they didn't have any listed under Bachmann Spectrum. Are they the same ones, or will the Walther's be an actual new release?
Michael,
I just looked at page 113 of the 2004 Walther's Catalog. The doodlebugs listed there are the same ones they brought out a couple of years ago. I have the LV model as well as one of the Sperry cars. Both the models are slow runners, seeing as the real things were not high speed equipment. They have the same drive mechanism.....motor mounted over the lead truck with the motor and the drive wheel being connected by a drive band. The units have interiors that are easy to get to for the purposes of populating or for putting in a decoder for DCC ops. The drive band is the weak link. The band on my doodlebug broke after less than two hours of operation. I have put it aside for now....so I have not tried to get a replacement band from Walthers and therefor cannot attest to their service. The Walthers doodlebut is not the same as the Bachmann. The Bachmann unit is longer and obviously has a different drive train. Either the doodlebug or the Sperry car are worth the money to me.
Bob
I ran one of these for a couple of hours on the shop layout. Band broke. It's a rather lame piece and the weak link. I'm working on installing a pinion gear and delrin chain that looks like it'll fit and should be much more robust. Walther rep said it wasn't designed for continuous such as a display layout. Can't imagine buying a train to run it for only short times.
Dave
Dave
Dave,
The sad part about my doodlebug is that I never ran it more than 10 to
15 minutes at a time. At the speed it runs, that is less than 3 laps around my railroad, as the average train takes 3-4 minutes to make a trip.Bob
I dumped these in my shop after running into this problem and ceased ordering anymore. I gave ample heads up to folks that wanted these regardless.
Dave
Can we assume their dynamometer car has the same flaw? I think it was made on the same chassis. A friend of mine has one of these, but I doubt if he's run it much, as we belong to a modular club.
Bob Boudreau Canada
Right you are! I meant the Sperry cars. Are they the same as the doodlebug?
Bob Boudreau
Bob,
The Walthers' doodlebug and Sperry car are built on the same frame with same drive. Only thing different is the rear truck and the body shell. They have same "gear" ration......or should I say...band ratio.
Bob Rule, Jr.
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