as a subcontractor for car bodies. Improvements to railcars were sought by The Pullman Company, who experimented with lightweight designs in partnership with the Ford Motor Company in 1925. They then enlisted the services of pioneering all-metal aircraft designer William Bushnell Stout in 1931 to adapt airplane fuselage design concepts to railcars. Also in 1931 the Budd Company entered into a partnership with the French tire company Michelin to produce lightweight stainless steel Budd-Michelin railcars in the US. Those advances in lightweight railcar design were important steps in the development of the lightweight diesel-electric streamliners of the 1930s. Production of self-propelled railcars dropped off with the onset of the Great Depression, which hurt the market for branch line services. But production was revived in 1949 with introduction of the Budd Rail Diesel Car. The variant name hoodelbug was largely limited to the mid-Atlantic states, particularly Pennsylvania. A major hiking trail in Indiana County, Pa., is named Hoodlebug Trail. The last remaining Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe (ATSF) Gas-Electric Doodlebug, M.177, is on display at the City of Los Angeles "Travel Town Museum" in Griffith Park. See also CPH railmotor Dracar Doodlebug disaster Edwards Rail Car Company FM OP800 Interurban McKeen Motor Car Company Steam dummy SAL 2027 References Further reading John B. McCall (December 1977). The Doodlebugs. Kachina Press. External links Doodlebugs at american-rails.com. Retrieved October 10, 2012 Doodlebugs in Jacksonville, Florida Railcars of the United States