The thought of the living history museum vs the tourist agenda occured to me as well as I was reading through this thread.
I see the major problem with the C&TS being revenue, and location. So many people dont know about it, and when they get to Chama, its depressed, seriously, its not a tourist place. Few hotels and places to dine. I was there agian this summer, been a decade since I was there last, and I was still struck by the depressed state of the town.
The C&TS has so many issues with it and surrounding it, that this type of venture would be difficult. I would personally rent a weekend at the section house but the RR would never go for it. The buildings stand there with no use, all locked up.
This type of venture would be better over on the D&S. They have the notoriety, the tourists, lots of folks with money. Texans seem to flock to the San Juans every year more than the rest of the states. If this were concieved, the D&S would make a better partner, because they allready do it with Wilderness ranch, the power company, the backpackers, and the rafters. They are a business and if it makes money, they would likely be interested.
I would think a string of camp cars at Cascade or elsewhere on the line would provide a good accomadation for a weekend. I would like to do this, I looked for it on the website before I went there this summer. It seems that it would not be to costly a venture to start up either. It would likely take a contractor to operate them cars, rent them fromt he D&S (Or buy them) maintain the interior, have one or two porters that travel up to the cars daily for "Room service" as in a normal hotel/motel.
It really is a feasable Idea if you put several together, its like being in a cabin in the woods, except your sleeping in a RR car, and you see some trains pass by.