There was a very nice, appropriate, memorial service for Bruce Petty today in Dunsmuir. At the end of the "sharing of stories" portion local icon, "Big Dave," spoke up about how much 1727 meant to Bruce, and how much he had done for it including painting it in 1991. (Dave is a relative newcomer and knows little of the history of caring for 1727 when a certain individual almost single-highhandedly raised monies, built new cab windows, and replaced all the number boards and headlight parts, and even hydro-ed the boiler and checked all the appliances (1975-1976), lubed the rods (McCloud RRR lent the gun, and the 4449 crew donated the grease) and he did his best to seal off all bearing openings.) So now Big Dave wants to name the locomotive after Bruce and remove the fence so folks can climb on the engine and have their picture taken.
In 1956, when it was first put on display, there was no fence, and it was quickly vandalized (back then it was simple stuff like breaking the glass, cutting the seat covers and stealing the seats; more recently it has been the sawing off the whistle, stealing the bell ringer, the headlight housing on the tender, and just recently removing all the glass and train number boards). After that first year, a fence was put around it for its protection.
So now the plan is to make it very approachable by anyone, so they can "experience" the locomotive up close and personal.
Poor Dunsmuir has not seemed to be able to even paint the engine (for the past 5 years they've tried), and as a former resident of the town, I don't presently see the community has the financial wherewithal to care for this engine, short or long term.
Bruce and I talked many times of the pie-in-the-sky idea of restoring it to operation; I really doubt he wanted to see it become a "jungle-gym." But, that seems to be the present plan.