My two cents: To make money with passengers you have to find the right nitch. D&RGW/DS/C&TS for example. Rebuilding passenger cars to be pulled by
Amtrak hoping to make money is a fool's dream. Public travel by train has not made any money in this country, just look at Amtrak.. Northeast corridor you say? Nope, it is in the red too despite heavy usage.
I thought the La Veta run by the SL&RG had a small chance to make money due to the limited distance and the fact that it basically was a tourist operation. Whether or not by steam is another question due to the limited size of the trains.. Tourist operations can charge more per mile than public transportation if they have something to sell (see above).
Now, we return you to regular programming!