Internal Combustion Cars

EMC, 1927 Union Pacific M35
EMC, 1927
Union Pacific M35
Description:Gas-Electric Coach

Equipment Information

UP M-35 is the museum’s only example of a “doodlebug,” the universal nickname given to self-propelled internal combustion-powered passenger cars built during the 1920s. Cars like this were intended to provide passenger service on very lightly-trafficked branch lines and short lines, where a steam engine hauling a passenger train would have been uneconomical. Car M-35 was last used in service between Topeka, Kansas, and Grand Island, Nebraska, and was retired in 1955.

COMPARE ME WITH: South Shore 19, an electric interurban car built in 1927, the same year as M-35. The UP “doodlebug” was something of an interurban car that carried its own powerplant, and shares a number of characteristics with interurbans of the period like car 19.

Builder: Electro Motive Corporation
Year Built: 1927
Model: ???
Horsepower: ???
Seats: 70
Length: 74ft 3in
Width: 9ft 9in
Height: 12ft 5in
Weight: 96940 lbs
Brakes: AMU
Engine: Roiline
Motors: 2 GE 292A
Trucks: Brill / St. Louis
Description: Gas-Electric Coach
Arrived: 1975
Condition: Complete / undergoing restoration / not operational

Ownership History
1927-1955 – Union Pacific #M-35
1955-1967 – Hall County Historical Society, Grand Island, NE
1967-1975 – Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer, Grand Island, NE
1975-present – Illinois Railway Museum, Union, IL

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