Motorcar M.177 was completed in September 1929 as a joint project of the General Motors, Electro-Motive Division and the Pullman Car and Manufacturing Company.

Nicknamed “Doodlebugs,” a railroad motorcar combined three functions into one vehicle: motive power, passenger seating, and baggage/mail/express space.  This consolidation was efficient for lightly-used branch lines and saved the railroad the expense of operating an entire train, with locomotive and half-filled cars.  The baggage compartment of the M.177 served not only as baggage and Express compartment, but also as a Railway Post Office. “Doodlebugs” like the M.177 served small rural communities along the Santa Fe lines in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas, from the Depression years through the Korean War period.  A sister car, M.181, ran here in southern California on Santa Fe’s local service between Los Angeles and San Bernardino.

The M.177 last operated on the line between Pampa, Texas, and Clinton, Oklahoma, in October 1953 and was donated to the Travel Town Museum shortly thereafter.