This Consolidation type (2-8-0) locomotive was built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1925 as a replacement for Thunder Lake Lumber Shay #10, a switch engine.
Operations on the narrow gauge (36”) Thunder Lake Lumber Company line started out of Rhinelander, WI, in the spring of 1893 as the Brown Robbins Lumber Company. In 1919 Robbins was bought by the Thunder Lake Lumber Company. Over the years, the line was extended until some forty-eight miles in length. Final logging took place in the spring of 1941, at which time, it was the last narrow gauge railroad in Wisconsin, and the last narrow gauge common carrier in the Midwest.
#5 has 15” x 20” cylinders and 36” drivers. Weighing
80,000 lbs, 70,000 lbs on its drivers, it has a driver
wheelbase of 11’ 9” and engine wheelbase of 18’ 7”. With a 14 sq ft grate and 87 sq ft firebox, total heating surface is 9,47 sq ft. Operating at a boiler pressure of 180 psi, it delivered 19,125 lbs tractive effort. Like the other locomotives on the line, in summer, #5 sported a huge spark arrester built at a Wausau iron works. These spark arresters were removed each winter.
The tender weighs 60,000 lbs light with a 2,800 gallon water and 5 ton coal capacity.
When the Thunder Lake ceased operations in 1941, #5 was sold to locomotive rebuilder/reseller Birmingham Rail & Locomotive, who almost immediately found a buyer for it in the American Smelting & Refining Company, which put it to work at the FC Mineral de Chihuahua mining operation in Mexico as their #7.
After more than thirty years working there, in 1972, #7 was donated to the Colorado Railroad Museum.
In February 1973, #7 was traded for another engine so that it could return to the City of Rhinelander for display in Pioneer Park.
Right, the engine is displayed coupled to a coach built for the Flint & Pere Marquette Railroad in 1888-89 and sold to the Thunder Lake in 1897. In 1919, the coach was converted for use as a business car and field office. Above right, Wooden Cupola Caboose #573 was built for the Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic Railroad in 1913. It was reliveried as SOO #573 in 1964 and stayed in operation until 1974.
