Boy, good question. What did I come down on #12 for in the last post, again? Throttle, Johnson bar, train brakes (or lack thereof), air compressor, sanders (again, lack thereof), fireman's injector, and, of all things, a duct taped water line.
The throttle: You might fix the leak; the Maintenance Dept. tried but couldn't (or at least not in time for the next train). The way the throttle and Johnson bar lock up at high pressures suggests it's something that you'd have to live with, although if you started going downgrade and found both of them locked up, you wouldn't be living with it for long. It kind of raises unsettling questions about the boiler and what the safety valves should really be set for. And yes, it is indeed just plain tricky in ways no one was really able to fathom.
Train brakes: We could not get the train brakes to work. Period. The engine brakes only work on account of an add-on---a brand-new Midland brake valve bolted to the top of the brake stand. My guess is you'd have to either completely dissect and overhaul or replace the brake stand.
Air compressor: The compressor builds and keeps air pressure nicely for what we had to do with it, but I sure wouldn't put much faith in it going down the 4% on the C&T! Not the way it sticks! Like the brake stand, you'd either have to take apart and overhaul the whole thing or replace it with something original. The original compressor, I gather from the builder's photo, was a single-lung and #12 clearly had a good portion of her running board cut out to accommodate the new appliance.
No sanders: First, you'd have to replace all the piping going from the sand domes to the wheels. Then there would have to be an inspection to see if the piping for the air is still in place at all (it didn't seem to be). Might be a relatively easy fix, compared to the air brakes.
Fireman's injector: It was tacked on by Maintenance as best they could when the original quit working. The "new" injector (I don't know where they got it) was set up differently, requiring all that clumsy, extraneous piping. It looks like a home plumbing project of nightmares. It could probably be fixed by installing the right injector in the right configuration. (As for the engineer's injector, who knows?)
Duct taped water line: more embarrassing than anything else. You wouldn't believe the ribbing we got for that. Some mainliners came to "see the Baldwin," took one look at that line and laughed themselves silly. Hey, it worked! . . . for a while. It's probably been replaced by now.
In conclusion, most of #12's problems are fixable for anyone with the time, skilled labor and $$$ to devote to it, certainly. At least one crucial one, however, (that throttle) may not be repairable without taking the whole boiler and valve gear to pieces.
Still, #12 is a grand old lady. She has dignity, bearing, could probably hold her own among the fleet of the D&S and C&T, and her exhaust is quiet until you get her going up a 3% grade. Even then she doesn't bark, she just talks. #12 is an engine that will tell you a lot and give you enough time to answer, if you're listening. I would love to take her over the C&S (hopefully an oil burner on Cumbres Pass would not be regarded as blasphemous) but not with the brakes and throttle like that. And certainly not for a quarter of a million bucks (as-is, where-is). We actually had a few potential buyers come around while I was in the cab; I kind of notice we didn't get to talk to them much. Someone looking for a 3' gauge train would probably be better off looking at the Porter engine on that same D.F. Barnhardt page. For $300,000, they'll overhaul the engine and include five restored open excursion cars; $150,000 as-is, where-is.
P.S. You weren't going to buy the thing, were you? If so, you didn't hear this from me! I intend to work on the railroad again next season.