I was wondering if there are any of these exotic beasts hiding at any railway/railroad museums?
No.
Its a shame that out of 54 unit’s not a one survived
Considering that all of the Centipedes in the United States were gone by 1965 and the Mexican Centipedes were gone by 1968, I’d be more surprised if any did survive.
Unfortunately, out of all the car body locomotives Baldwin produced, only 4 survive. Two are in Michigan, (the ex D&H, Monongahela, NYC RF-16’s) and two are in Argentina (both meter gauge RF-615e’s). Of the two in Argentina, one is fully restored and operational, and the other is a parts hulk used to restore the former. The RF-615e by the way is a modified 6 axle export version of the RF-16s. Both RF-16’s in Michigan are privately owned and stored, and additionally have various mechanical problems. Events in the 80’s have condemned them to a privately locked shed for the foreseeable future.
Back on the Centipedes. The production Centipede, known as the DR 12-8-3000, devolved out of a BLW experiment in 1942-43 for an ultra high speed single unit diesel locomotive that could pull a standard “Heavyweight” train at speeds of up to 125mph. This locomotive was BLW #6000, a 6000hp 4-D-D-4 powered by eight small 750hp V-8 diesel engines. The locomotive had a modular design, and each engine has built into it’s own self contained power pack, with the engine, generator, radiator, dynamic brake, and power control system all built into a tiny removable unit. In tests, a whole power plant could be changed out in 10 minutes.
The unique Centipede running gear was a direct evolution of the GG-1’s 4-C-C-4 arrangement. This running gear transmitted the pulling and buffing forces through the trucks themselves, not the car body of the locomotive. This lowered the relative center of gravity that the forces acted on, and also allowed for extremely smooth running at very high speeds.
Unfortunately, WWII cut the development of #6000 short, and it was never fully tested. A lack of funds and government intervention brought the end of the development of the V-8 diesels that powered #6000, killing any chance for further postwar development. So, #6000 was tucked away in storage for a while, until the S