my brother, who works for grand canyon railway, claims that in the late 1980's, the grand canyon railway planned on purchasing several chinese steamers for their line. The tienamen square incident put an end to this idea, and they instead purchased the LS&I #s 18,19,20, and 29, and CB&Q #4960. The 18, 29 and 4960 are back in operation, and the 20 and 19 on static display in williams and las vegas, respectively. According to my brother, and to my intuition, the chinese steamers were new, or near-new, and the cost of the engine and the shipping would be much less than restoring an old USA steamer... I think I remember hearing that restoring the 4960 to operational cost a million $$$.
kevin