Shane -
It's not up to me to decide (thank goodness!) whether or not to swap the boilers on #492 & #497 to obtain one operational locomotive at reasonable cost and one display locomotive from the less-useful parts. I was merely pointing out that one aspect of the Commission's charter is 'to preserve the history' of what has become the C&TS RR. It's up to the Commission to determine exactly what this means. To me, part of 'preserving history' is interpreting it in an active way for our younger - and future - generations to understand and appreciate. IMHO static displays are a mere shadow of history, and the greater the number - and variety - of engines and other equipment actually operating on the C&TS, the better. Tenders were often swapped between locomotives, and I'm sure there have been instances in the past where the D&RGW swapped cabs, boilers and other major parts to obtain one useful engine from the remains of two wrecked or worn-out ones. It can easily be argued that interchanging parts between #492 and #497 is actively recreating history.
Obviously, a lot of new steel - and wooden - parts have had to be fabricated in order to return equipment to operation. Many of these parts - flues, for instance - are not visible, and the use of improved materials is easily justified. For the parts that ARE visible, hopefully some care is taken to ensure that they replicate as closely as possible - in appearance, material, and method of manufacture - the originals which they are replacing. Certainly the use of modern, longer-lasting roofing materials on passenger cars is preferable to using old-fashioned tar-paper, so long as it isn't glaringly obvious. Many older standard-gauge passenger cars have roller bearings hidden inside their journal boxes, and even the more historic coaches on the D&S now have holding tanks instead of hoppers.
There was a great series of articles in "Elanor P." (
Locomotive & Railway Preservation) several years ago on the topic of restorations vs replications. I'll try to find it, and post a reference.
- Russ
