Jerry,
I believe the outfit that was involved in the negotiations was the Utah Historical Society. If my memory serves me right, the 223 had just come out of a park (or something similar) and was sitting on a station platform in a rotting condition. The Utah Historical Society had just obtained the engine and weren't quite sure what to do with it, nor did they have the money to do it; hence the interest in sending it to Chama for restoration. I understand that since then, all this has changed and work is progressing quite nicely on its restoration. I would still like to see it run on the C&TS!
I do not know who has control of the engine now or who is in charge of the restoration. Also, I am saying all this based on my memory of negotiations over twenty years ago and would not be the least bit surprised if I have some of these facts wrong.