It's likely a decision won't be made until later this year on what the goal of the X54 project will be (this year we are only going to survey its present condition). We are soliciting opinions from within the Friends membership, the narrow gauge fan community, and of course the commission.
Some of the possibilities are:
1. Restoration back to original RPO configuration roughly as it existed between 1936-1951.
2. Restoration as it was used on the C&TS up until a couple years ago so it could be used for Opening Day postmarks, and possibity a stand-in gift or snack car.
3. Restoration to an Outfit car configuration. Note the car probably was in this state longer than anything else.
While there is no formal decision process envisioned, a lot of going to depend on how much work it would take and most importantly how much money. If somebody pledges $250K for it's restoration, thats going to have some influence on what we do. Ideally, whatever we do, we'll want to have it completed in 5 years or less.
If anybody has any interest in actively working on this project, please let me know. In all likelyhood, to speed the work we will have many team leaders involved. I'd also like to hear from anybody who would like to do a lot of research on the car and it's construction so we have as good of information as possible to make our decisions.