It's true: all it would have taken was $250 a pop to save every one of the SR&RL Baldwins (an O-scale brass model of one cost more than that 50 years later...), but it's a sign of how tight money was that Linwood Moody (maybe the greatest Maine Narrow Gauge fan ever to live..) had to stand by and watch it happen without saving even one.
You have to think of it this way: Let's say you're a running-around kind of guy who gets a chance to buy SR&RL #24. OK, first you need the equivalent of many thousands of 2008 dollars even to start. Excellent! Now you own this machine that's over 40 feet long (including tender) and weighs over 50,000 Lbs. If you live anywhere but Phillips, you need to truck this immense thing to where you need it. OK, now you have your 50,000+ pound locomotive in your driveway, you have to park the DeSoto in the street because the tender is against the garage door and the pilot is hanging over the sidewalk, your neighbors are really cheezed at you...now what? You still have no railroad to run it on, and even if you do where are your shop facilities and undercover storage. Of course it would be nice to have some cars.
-no wonder there were no takers! (Imagine running this one past the wife?!!)
The best bet for saving any of these engines pre-Edaville were the other two foot gauge lines, but at the time the B&H and Monson were both strapped for cash and if anything needed lighter, more economical engines and not bigger ones.
Still: would have been nice if one of the Sandy River towns had bought one for a park engine, but then again the municipal governments were hurting for money too and worried about things like keeping the roads and buildings in shape on less money. Besides: steam and narrow gauge were still common and not so special yet.