#2786
Baldwin DR-12-8-1500/2
🇺🇸 United States ·built by Baldwin Locomotive Works· from 1945· diesel-electric locomotive
1 photo from Wikimedia Commons · credits & licences
- 1. Baldwin Centipede diesel Seaboard 1946: published by the Amarillo Globe Times· Public domain
what is it?
The Baldwin DR-12-8-1500/2 (known informally as the Centipede) was the Baldwin Locomotive Works' first serious attempt at a production road diesel locomotive. The Baldwin type designation was 'DR-12-8-1500/2,' meaning Diesel Road locomotive, with 12 axles (8 of which were driven), and two engines of 1,500 horsepower (1,100 kW) each. The trucks were configured in a 2-D+D-2 wheel arrangement.
who runs it
base stats
Bars compare against all trains: 600 km/h (maglev), 1,700 seats; power, weight and number built on a log scale up to 20 MW, 1,000 t and 20,000 built.
fun facts
- First built 81 years ago, in 1945.
- Top speed is 1.5× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
- At full speed it would cover Amsterdam–Utrecht (≈ 40 km) in 12 minutes.
- 2.2 MW is about 26 family cars (~85 kW each) flat out.
- Weighs about as much as 45 African elephants (~6 t each).
- 27.7 m long: about 6 cars parked nose to tail.
multiple unit: A self-propelled train: motors are spread under the passenger cars, so no separate locomotive.
spec sheet
- built
- 1945–1948
- status
- retired
- number built
- 54
- kind
- Diesel-electric
- traction
- diesel
- origin
- 🇺🇸 United States
- builders
- Baldwin Locomotive Works
- operators
- Seaboard Air Line Railroad, Baldwin Locomotive Works, Pennsylvania Railroad, Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México
- top speed
- 193 km/h
- power
- 2.2 MW
- gauge
- 1,435 mm standard gauge
- wheel arrangement
- 4-8-0+0-8-4
- length
- 27.7 m
- weight
- 270 t
From the Wikipedia infobox and Wikidata. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q4850539, Wikipedia: Baldwin DR-12-8-1500/2 (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-25.