[Stan Cedarleaf]

Last Saturday, I happened to aquire an Aristo-Craft Milwaukee Road coach at a price I couldn't refuse. Nice coach, older one with 3 axle trucks but I had nothing to go with it so I really thought about selling it.


Then, came ebay.... I saw an Aristo-Craft Milwaukee Road Doodlebug in a auction. The seller was from Prescott, even. Had no idea who he was but I called and asked if I won the item, could I pick it up with no shipping costs. Yup, sure can.

So, long story short, I won the Doodlebug. Now the coach has something to pull it. I picked it up yesterday, took it apart and converted it to battery power. Raw batteries at this point with no controller. It runs just fine on 14.8 Li-ions and I'm getting 3 1/2 hours of run time on a 2200 mah battery. Just take the roof off to change batteries.

Made intial coach pulling tests with all 3 wheelsets in each truck. Doodlebug wasn't real happy with that so I took the center wheelset out of the trucks and it runs wonderfully.

Rather than disconnect the interior lights completely, I unsoldered one of the leads from the OEM bulbs and replaced them with four 5mm bright white LED's with resistors and a diode to prevent LED "Phffffftttttt" when the polarity reverses when I get the controller installed for full directional control.

The Doodlebug is a very smooth running piece. It's the newer model with BB trucks.

It's a real nice addition to the PCSRR

 

[Great Western]

Hi Stan,

They look very sharp. It must have been your lucky week to get the car and then the Doodlebug both in the same road name.

 

[aceinspp]

Very nice Stan. Does the doolbug have traction tires? Should have pulled the coach unless you have pretty good grades. One thing I did is install BB in the coach and the doolebug handles the car well with out traction tires. Later RJD

 

[Greg Elmassian]

Stan, it's still easy to have the shell of the bulb socket hit the other wire and make a nasty short... you might pull the bulbs just to be sure. Several of my friends have has this happen and it was not pretty.

Nice update though, I used strips of leds to smooth out the led lights.

Regards, Greg

 

[Stan Cedarleaf]

Yes, Alan. Finding the MKE Rd doodlebug was a very nice treat....

RJ... Good idea. I may just get some BB wheelsets but I'll run it this way for a while.

Greg, I've made doubly sure that the sockets are isolated. I can understand that it would be a nice fire if they were to short...

Just finished putting LED's in the coach along with a Fred on the rear coupler.

Next step will be to install R/C... Got something new in mind... It's a secret...

 

[bottino]

I am glad you told me about this Stan. It is very nice looking. As I mentioned today, I like the ones with a little color, like UP and your Milwaukee. I always loved the Milwaukee color scheme. It really looks great. I'm thinking sound for mine.
Paul

 

[Dave Ottney]

Stan,
That looks really cool.
Dave

 

[bottino]

Stan,
Now you got me looking at a UP heavyweight on ebay. Free shipping. Fixed price. Na.

 

[Stan Cedarleaf]

Posted By bottino on 12/05/2008 6:48 AM
Stan,
Now you got me looking at a UP heavyweight on ebay. Free shipping. Fixed price. Na.


Yes Paul, that's what MLS is all about. Keeping up with the Jones' ....

 

[bottino]

My dad's motto was He who dies with the most toys, wins. He won big, Now I have all his toys, and mine too.
Paul