RPO's and replicas

According to my AFE book, 053 was retired from the passenger roster 12/15/29, so it had been a non-revenue car for almost as long as it was an RPO. It has an interesting interior and I would personally like it to remain a non-revenue car. The C&TS had two other RPOs that were rebuilt and reinforced in to 1920s or 30s to conform to USPS standards, and were used on the Salida-Ouray RPO and the Durango-Alamosa RPO. The Grande took the nice ASF trucks for cars they made for the Silverton in the early 1960s, and the Thielsen-style archbar truck that replaced them make those cars rock and prone to derailment at some speeds. Other than that the cars are solid and straight.
I agree that repairing some passenger cars for special operation is a very good idea. Cars like 0452(former pay car "F")had been in non-revenue service so long that its identity needs to be preserved. I know from what was done with similar cars on the D&SNG in the early 1980s it is a huge job to rebuild a passenger car, but not beyond the skill levels exhibited by the Friends. This is a reach, but one idea down the road is to build replicas of historic cars.