I've seen 69 operate and....

My feeling is that it probably is better off headed back to Alaska where it can do something productive. We visited Stuhr in 1988 on the way back from a UP 3985 trip to Laramie, and was told by a buddy to check out Stuhr. It was pretty uninteresting as the little loco trundled around a sweeping series of loops, and the only sound you heard was the whistle and the cars rolling by.
The same experience could be made available to the folks at Stuhr with a railcar, or diesel pulling the cars. Maybe not quite as "Period" as the steam engine, but probably more economical in the long run, and something running probably is better than spending all that money they don't seem to have on 69. Better to get something for it and move on!
If anyone wants to see 69 and other steamers, it is in our "American Steam-Vol 1" video.
Not meaning to knock the museum which as pretty nice, but the steam engine to me was probably more costly than necessary for their purposes!
Greg Scholl