The Iron Mule: Gainesville-Midland Number 209

I was passing through Gainesville, Georgia on my way to the Steam Expo. when I spotted this engine. Steam locomotives are my favorite so it was time to take a stretch break. After walking all around the engine I realized that I hadn’t seen any signs or information displays. Maybe I had overlooked something so I walked around again looking for any signs I might have missed. No doubt this time, there just weren’t any, I thought this was odd since the town had gone to considerable expense to create a nice display. It was the beginning of a pattern that would repeat itself.

As if to make sure that the curious were denied all information, someone had removed the identification plates from both sides of the boiler. Was this the work of a souvenir hunter? Maybe, but I doubt it. Those plates are usually attached to the boiler with some fairly substantial rivets. At this point I had some photos but no info about what it was.

Time passed. When I got around to researching this post I emailed the city of Gainesville to see what light they could shed on the history of No. 209. The contact person replied that she would ask around and get back to me. In the meantime I might want to contact the local historical society, I had planned on doing that anyway so that was my next move. I’m still waiting to hear from the city. I guess they’re content to use it as a holiday ornament and let it go at that.

The people at the historical society replied by sending me a pdf of an article that had appeared in the local newspaper: “Uncovering the Past, Gainesville-Midland # 209” by David French. In it Mr. French refers to a book titled: The Gainesville-Midland and her Sister Short Lines by Douglas Van Veelen. In his book, Van Veelen asserts that # 209 was built by Baldwin in March of 1930. Mr French writes that no sources were referenced and that Van Veelen offered no explanation of how he came by this knowledge but he accepts it at face value.

There are a number of reasons that I question Van Veelen’s assertion about the origin of this machine. First and foremost is the fact that it looks like one of the Russian decapods designed and constructed in 1917 under the supervision of A.I. Lipetz, the head of the locomotive division of the Russian State Railway. You can compare this engine to one of the pictures a search for Russian Decapods will produce and judge for yourself. The boiler mounted high above the drivers and the location of the firebox on #209 are distinctly Russian. Baldwin did build 2-10-0’s for American railroads, but they looked similar to most other engines operated in this country.

The Decapod design filled a very narrow niche market because they did one thing very well, pulling heavy loads on steep grades at low speeds. The Pennsylvania Railroad was one of the few in the USA that operated a large fleet of decapods. All told they used 598 2-10-0’s on their Allegheny Mountain routes where the design excelled for slow drag service. The Gainesville Midland on the other hand, was a short line that ran from Gainesville to Athens Ga. an area that isn’t exactly mountain country.

The Russians placed the largest orders for 2-10-0’s by far that American builders ever received. In 1917 the Czar’s government ordered 1057 of which 857 were shipped before the Bolsheviks stole the country. During World War ll another 2200 were built ( and no doubt paid for as part of lend lease, with American taxpayer dollars ) for our wonderful allies, the Soviets. With these two exceptions, orders were few and far between. American railroaders just preferred the 2-8-0 design. It’s those 200 that were left in country during the First World War that are of interest here.

When the United States entered the war, the nation’s railroads were effectively nationalized and the 200 decapods were drafted into the service of the United States Railroad Administration. Those 200 engines would be distributed to railroads across the country and most were put into service on short branch lines. Seaboard assigned it’s allotment to the Hamlet / Raleigh area where they served until the early 50’s when a group was transferred to the Gainesville Midland. It seems to me that this is the most probable explanation of how # 209 arrived at its present location.