Fulgurex Bugatti Diesel Railcar of the ETAT Railroad Présidentiel Red/Grey Livery  
    

Prototype: Most people associate the Bugatti name with famous and rare automobiles but this you know that in the 1930’s Bugatti also built modern railcar that beat the world speed record?  Collectors form all over the global try to get there hands on anything associate with the iconic Bugatti brand. Ettore Bugatti designed one of the first modern high-speed railway systems in the world. His first RAILCAR was tested near the Bugatti factory in Alsace, France in 1933. Before that date nearly all trains were hauled by heavy steam locomotives. The Bugatti railcars were built as single, double or triple ‘car’ units with either two or four 12.7 litre petrol engines centrally mounted in one of the cars. Each car was mounted on two 8 wheel bogies and the linked engines were arranged to drive two or four of the eight axles via drive shafts with hydraulic clutches and reversing gears. This modular system of powered and trailer cars could be arranged in various combinations to suit the different needs of the French railway companies from the smallest 36 seater to the triple set 144 seat train. The fastest, most comfortable, was known as PRESIDENTIAL which had 4 engines producing 800 horsepower in a double set with 48 luxury seats. In this form a speed of 122 mph was achieved in 1934 which was a new world rail speed record. These railcars were highly successful being light, clean and comfortable as compared with steam powered rolling stock. Their chief asset was speed and the railway companies were able to drastically reduce long distance journey times. Bugatti built and maintained more than a hundred railcars which was needed revenue in the difficult economic climate of the time.