Okay, this is a little late in the discussion, but the following excerpt from the description of 2001 projects submitted to the New Mexico and Colorado SHPOs (State Historic Preservation Offices) may help explain the motivation for converting box car coach 209 back to box car 3605.
"This car [box car coach 209] is one of 750 3000-series, 25-ton, wood frame box cars that were built in 1903 to supplement or replace the 4000-series, 20-ton, box cars from the 1880s (Historic Preservation Study, pp. 70-71). At its formation, the C&TS RR received 37 of the 3000-series box cars, but no coaches in which to haul tourists. Therefore, 19 of these box cars were converted into coaches and an additional 2 cars were made into snack-souvenir cars. Thus, at this time there are 16 unmodified box cars. (Box car 3686 was slightly modified to become souvenir car 401 about 30 years ago, but the modifications have been removed and the car has been renumbered as 3686.) The box cars are in demand for storage and for use in charter trains. Both the Friends and the Operator are reluctant to use the cars used for storage in charter trains. The use of the box car coaches has declined markedly since the new, steel-frame coaches came into use about 20 years ago. Now, only ten or so box car coaches are used during the peak season and many of the box car coaches, such as 209, are in dilapidated condition and have not been used in years. Therefore, instead of allowing it to rot away as an unused box car coach, the Friends propose to restore it to its box car configuration. In this form it will be useful in charter trains and will be another example of one of the most ubiquitous types of cars on the old narrow gauge railway."
As an aside, this is one of 28 projects for 2001, some of which are multi-car projects. So I don't think it is accurate to say that this project is being undertaken at the expense of other worthy projects.
Cheers,
Curt Bianchi
