TheSt. Louis Car Company "Doodlebug" was a model of lightweight,streamlineddiesel-electricrailcars built by theSt. Louis Car Company in 1936 for theSeaboard Air Line Railroad.Electromotive Corporation supplied the 600 hp (450 kW), eight-cylinder Winton 8-201Aprime mover and electric transmission components, though unit 2028 would be rebuilt in 1948 with a more modernEMD 567 prime mover. The units had aB-2 wheel arrangement, mounted atop a pair of roadtrucks. The aft section was divided into two separate compartments: one was used to transport baggage and the other served as a smallrailway post office, or RPO (the forward door, located just behind the radiator louvers, was equipped with a mail hook).
Two units were manufactured for the Seaboard Air Line Railroad (SAL) and were numbered 2027 and 2028. Unit 2027 was destroyed in a collision with a gas tanker truck atArcadia, Florida in 1956. Unit 2028 remained in service, and was primarily used on theSilver Meteor betweenTampa, Florida andVenice, Florida through the 1950s and 60s. Unit 2028 was renumbered to 4900 after theSeaboard Coast Line merger in 1967 between the SAL and theAtlantic Coast Line Railroad (ACL). Unit 2028, now numbered 4900, was reassigned to operate theChampion betweenLakeland, Florida andNaples, Florida. Unit 2028 was removed from service and scrapped afterAmtrak took over national passenger service in 1971.
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