Mike,
I think that Bradshaw had the 493, 498, and 499 trucked in during the early 80's. I assume that the 497 was chosen because it was stored servicable as was the 481. And from what I understand it didn't take a lot of work to get the 481 put back into service. I also think that in 1968 the 493, 498, 492 were all in the roundhouse and stored as servicable. I know that the President of the D&RGW had plans for the 493 and 498 which is probably why the 492 was sold to the C&TS in 1970. You would think that if the 492 has a much newer boiler barrel that it would be a good cantidate for the shops since it would probably last much longer than any of the operating K-36's. We can only hope that it see's the rails again on Cumbres.
William