Well, nice try crmeatball...............restoring and operating steam is very challenging and can be excruciatingly frustrating. If you find yourself in a position in an organization where you have to look pragmatically at cost vs results you begin to see why steam lost out to diesels. The overriding factor with steam has to be its attraction to your customers and/or the people funding and working on them. Strictly economically they're a loser - but they are so damn interesting to such a wide range of people they can still justify themselves in some limited settings.
All too often an organization will think they can pull off a steam locomotive restoration only to find that it takes way more than they thought to bring to fruition. Enthusiasm will only get you so far (usually as far as taking something completely apart - and before the "oh @#$%&" moments begin). A lot of times the best thing to do is to do nothing.

99 out