That's something I agree with. Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum's Southern 2-8-0 630's restoration took TEN YEARS and is considered one of the most thorough restorations in recent times. 630 was completely turned into pieces and rebuilt from the ground up. However, when it began mainline excursion service, they encountered problems with the bearings overheating. It eventually came to the point that she had to return to the shops and had her bearings replaced with oil bearings. Afterwards, there were no bearing problems. As for Southern 2-8-2 4501, The Queen of Southern Steam, as I call her, (and is responsible for the restorations of multiple steam locomotives such as Norfolk & Western 611, The Queen of Steam), her restoration took only THREE YEARS, and cost $1.1 MILLION dollars. If I had won the lottery, I would have donated $1.5 million dollars; $1.1 million for the restoration of 4501, and the remaining $400,000 dollars to maintain 630 and 4501 to keep them running. However, I might have donated $2 million dollars; $1.1 million to the restoration of 4501, $400,000 to keep 630 and 4501 running, and the other $500,000 for improvements to the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum's property.
