Number 90 posted:There's always hope.
Usually most railroad enthusiasts hope that someone else will pay for a desired preservation/restoration project.
Given the scope and scale of restoration projects, even if you group a large number of enthusiasts together would not scrape up enough money to restore an engine, most projects that I can tell that actually do it rely on all kinds of funding, state and local grants, corporate grants, foundations to get most of the funding, individual contributions tend to be a much smaller part of major projects. Projects that cost 7 figures and above generally require big resources *shrug*.
