As I have often said, the CSRM can't preserve rocks in a Mason jar. Yep, #3 got a new boiler and also a new tender. If, indeed, the museum's mission is preservation, they sure as hell failed with the #3. It is no longer an historical artifact but, instead, an operating replica using a few parts from the original engine.

They ran the #28 into the ground and relied, for the most part,on volenteer labor to maintain it. If they get the money to rebuild the locomotive, my guess is damn little of the original locomotive will remain. If they couldn't get sufficient, qualified, and professional people, it should have left in the round house.

Preservation at its finest.

That said, I often find myself feeling like a Christian Scientist with appendicitas on the quandry of operation vs. preservation.