Robbins 2-8-0 "Consolidation" Locomotives in the USA

Class 5 (Locobase 15482)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University, Volume 80, pp. 146+. See also the Master List of Wisconsin Logging Railroad's entry on the TLLC at [], last accessed 13 October 2013; and George Woodman Hilton, American Narrow Gauge Railroads (), p. 560.. Works number was 58530 in July 1925.

The RRR was owned by one of the cooler company names: Thunder Lake Lumber Company of Rhinelander, Wisc. The 5 was headed for some very light rail: 30 lb/yard (15 kg/metre) on "heavy" ties. Built in 1893 because Pine Lake Creek's low water prevented log rafting, the first part of the line ran from Rhinlander to Pine Lake and later to Sugar Camp.

By 1898, the three-foot gauge was incorporated as a common carrier and took the Robbins Railroad name in 1901. The line prospered for two decades carrying lumber, but was sold in 1919 to the Thunder Lake.

Accounts differ over the degree to which the RRR remained a common carrier line throughout the 20s and 30s, but all agree that logging was the key economic driver. The 5 (known as the "Five Spot") was bought at the time when the railroad had achieved its greatest length of 40 miles (64.4 km).

It was the last narrow-gauge railroad to operate in Wisconsin when it was abandoned in 1941. At that point, the RRR sold the 5 to locomotive rebuilder/reseller Birmingham Rail & Locomotive, who almost immediately found a buyer for a relatively young engine on 6 August 1941. ASARCO (American Smelting & Refining Co) put it to work on the FC Mineral de Chihuahua as their 7.

After a long second career, 7 was donated in 1972 to the Colorado Railroad Museum. Months later in February 1973, the 7 was traded for another engine so it could return to the city of Rhinelander to go on outdoor display at Pioneer Park Historical Complex.