Thunder Lake Logging No. 5, a 1925 Baldwin narrow gauge 2-8-0 (purchased new) on display at the Rhinelander Logging and Railroad Museum. This is the second steam locomotive to be displayed at the logging museum, the first being ex-Denver, South Park & Pacific 2-8-0 191, which had been Thunder Lake No. 7. In 1972 a remarkable deal was worked out between the Rhinelander Logging Museum and the Colorado Railroad Museum. After several years of research, Rhinelander historian Harvey Huston (he wrote the book "Thunder Lake Narrow Gauge") managed to track down Thunder Lake 2-8-0 No. 5, which had been sold to the Ferrocarril Mineral de Chihuahua in Mexico after its Wisconsin logging days were over. When the Chihuahua line ceased operation in 1972 it had four steam engines on its roster; two were to stay in Mexico for display, but owner American Smelter & Refining was willing to donate the other two – including ex-Thunder Lake No. 5 – to the Rhinelander Logging Museum providing that someone else pay the costs to ship them back to the US. Huston contacted Robert Richardson at the Colorado Railroad Museum and worked out a trade: if Richardson would pay to move No. 5 to Rhinelander, he could have ex- DSP&P 191 and the extra locomotive. The prospects of having a genuine DSP&P steam locomotive return to the Centennial State was too good to pass up; some $18,000 later, No. 191 was back on Colorado soil (the additional engine from Mexico is now at the Huckleberry). Number 5 was repainted and placed on exhibit alongside the former Soo Line depot in Rhinelander, where it remains today. It could use a little TLC, but it's still in pretty good shape.
