Author: Nick Bulgarino
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EL GP9 1271
“Don’t judge a book by its cover.” When the cover looks like this, I can’t help it. This Red Caboose GP9 was bought by a customer as part of an estate sale. The engine was advertised this as “needs work but runs well,” and I can’t say it was falsely advertised. The customer wanted a…
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B&O T3a 5584
I am a big advocate for battery power electronics. Also called Power Onboard or Dead Rail, the name describes locomotives that use a battery as their source of power instead of the rails. When the rail doesn’t carry electricity, it is electrically “dead,” hence the alternative name. There are a lot of benefits of this…
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CSRR R1 914
A picture is worth a thousand words, but the above really only says one I shouldn’t type… Canandaigua Southern Railroad (CSRR) 914 was the first model John built. It was built in the late 1930’s while he was a student at Purdue University out of tin and Folger’s coffee cans. Skipping over how this locomotive…
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CSRR V1 1206
The name John Armstrong carries a lot of weight in the hobby. “The Dean of Track Planning,” John was most famous for his books and contributions to Kalmbach publications. John was an O Scaler, and his railroad, the Canandaigua Southern Railroad (CSRR), was his lab for radical new ideas. Have you ever walked around the…
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Reading 2101 (Chessie Steam Special)
Reading 2101 (Chessie Steam Special) Working with brass detail parts, battery power installs, and new approaches are the core ideas behind Bulgarino Locomotive Works, and this project is the prime example of that! The client asked me to modify a model of Reading 2101 to its appearance during the Chessie Steam Special excursions of 1977-1978.…