Re: Locomotive Preservation

Doug,
I'm currently knee deep into this paradox of a subject with a locomotive in Chile.
Restore or preserve? The best perspective ... at least the one I like the most ... is from Dan Markoff. If you restore a locomotive and run it wisely, the locomotive is kept in the best of shape due to routine maintenance. I go to any locomotive in any park and rest my case.
At the risk of upsetting the NGDF nest, I don't understand the sacred value of keeping locomotives exactly how they were with the same fabric of material that the railroad left them with. For example, I watched piping getting rerouted on a boiler so that it would be historically accurate. Meanwhile, the locomotive boiler condition is in question.
The answer of replicating locomotives was done in Los Angeles in 1975 for the Promontory Utah Transcontinental Railroad Park. O'Conner Engineering Laboratories replicated the Jupiter and 119 at a cost of approx. $1,000,000 each (1975 dollars). O'Conner lost their shirt on the project, but produced 2 perfectly brand new locomotives.
My only other comment is that there is a list of locomotives that would be nice to restore. The 2 risks are (1) taking them apart - and the locomotives remaining that way, and (2)destroying the sacred fabric of the original railroad. There's also a list of groups (D&RGW 315 in Durango, RGS/C&S 74 in Boulder, D&RGW 318 and 346 at CRRM ...) that would appreciate support before considering creating new locos.
Other thoughts?