Model Review | Broadway Limited - Baldwin DR-12-8-1500/2 "Centipede"

Hello again folks! I’m back with another model review, this one of a very unusual prototype…

So let’s get this review rolling!

Baldwin DR-12-8-1500/2 History: To avoid retyping that model designation throughout this review, I’ll just use “it/they”.

They were built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works from December of 1945 until July of 1948, with a total of 54 built. They were BLW’s first attempt at a road locomotive (a loco to be used on main line work), and were truly unusual beasts, even so early in diesel development. They had a total of 12 axles, with the 2 axles on each end being unpowered, and the middle 8 being powered – a 2-D+D-2 arrangement; this led to their nickname, “Centipede”.

This setup was a carryover from steam locomotive design, where unpowered axles were used to guide locomotives around curves smoothly, and all the driving axles theoretically improved traction. They were powered by two BLW 608SC 16 cylinder turbocharged four-stroke diesel prime movers producing 1,500hp each, which transferred power through a Westinghouse 471A generator, to eight Westinghouse 370F traction motors. All this rode on enormous articulated cast steel frames made by General Steel Castings.

If you’re familiar with BLW at all, you’ll know that their steam locomotives were extremely successful, and they had some success in the diesel switcher market, but their road diesels were by and large dismal failures from the beginning, and today’s subject is no exception.

BLW had a peculiar manufacturing process, in which each diesel locomotive was built one at a time, opposed to on an assembly line, which was a carryover from their steam production.

This worked for steam, but not for diesels – the DR-12-8-1500/2 was in particular plagued by reliability issues stemming from slight differences in manufacturing, with components and wiring being installed a little differently on each unit, as well as another steam carryover of installing the wiring in metal conduits, which made maintenance and repair very difficult – bad enough on a reliable product, but in this case it resulted in a never ending stream of issues.

All this said, several railroads bought examples; Union Pacific ordered 2 (which weren’t delivered and became BLW demonstrators), the Pennsylvania Railroad had the largest fleet, with 24, and Seaboard Air Line and Ferrocarriles Naciolnales de Mexico were tied with 14 each. Most were originally assigned to passenger service, but when their reliability issues became apparent they were quickly relegated to freight, with the PRR and NdeM examples being further demoted to helper service (pushing trains up hills – Horseshoe Curve in the PRR units’ case).

The US examples were scrapped by the early 60’s, with the Mexican ones gone by the late 60’s. Though failures, it’s a shame none of these were saved.

SAL 4500 History: 4500 has a particularly unusual history. The frames were built in 1943 as Baldwin’s experimental 6000, which they termed a “4-8-8-4-750/8DE1” (who came up with these model designations?!) which had the “sharknose” cab design and was to be equipped with eight V8 8LV engines.

Only 4 of those would actually be installed, and the experiment was abandoned. However, though the upper portion (body, prime movers, etc…) were removed and scrapped, the frames and running gear were repurposed into SAL 4500, which was SAL’s first DR-12-8-1500/2. 4500’s build date was December of 1945, and it was painted into SAL’s “citrus” scheme, which was based on the colors of the citrus groves the passenger trains it pulled passed through in route from New York to Florida.

SAL would get somewhat decent service out of 4500, but it most definitely didn’t measure up to its competition, and was in the scrapyard by 1957.

Box Info:

The yellow and orange look fine, but the green is kinda meh, to be honest. Bordering on unpleasant or even ugly. That's a prototype issue, not model issue.

I'm not sure why SAL didn't just go with one big billboard style name on the sides, rather than the small double Seaboard.

The taper to the rear is evident, here. These have several body design oddities, like the taper, or the weird step in the roof over the cab - that would've looked better as one uniform curved roofline.

Close-ups of the big, strange truck setups.

-if the video says "Private Video" at first, just reload the page. 👀

Ratings~

Good: Thankfully, the quality of this model is better than the actual prototype’s, at least mechanically.

All the lettering and stickers look good, and the small details are very well made and installed. On that subject I found the trucks/frames, grilles, and railing especially impressive. The overall built quality is excellent, a very sturdy and stout model.

The lights and sounds all work and sound perfect, as well. It handles trains and trackwork perfectly, and the articulation is really well reproduced.

It also came with an extra detail parts bag with some steps and miscellaneous items.

It comes in at a very respectable 1lb 10.7oz.

Bad: Unfortunately, there are a few issues, mostly cosmetic. I noticed a few scratches on the model fresh out of the box, and there are several instances of paint being smudged and either incorrectly applied or chipped off.

Also the motor, as in the electric motor, seems noticeably loud. Another issue, which I've noticed on a few models recently, is the shallow exhaust outlet - it's just molded on the surface of the body, with no depth, or even dark paint to suggest depth.

Overall: Aside from the admittedly noticeable amount of scratches and paint issues, it’s a mighty fine model. It runs and sounds top notch, and the construction is very impressive overall.

I’d definitely give it a shot if it interests you!

As always, thanks for looking!