Keeping old equipment going takes much time, effort and obscure knowledge. I spent years restoring old Teletype machines. (If anyone went to the Clockwork Alchemy steampunk conventions and saw the Telegraph Office [1], that was my doing.) Fortunately, many of those Teletypes were built, they're very well documented, they're built of good steel, and there are still parts available. It's easier to restore the all-mechanical machines of the 1920s and 1930s than the more electronic machines of the 1970s. Teletype built the first ink-jet printer, the Inktronic, and as far as I know, no working examples remain.
The Computer Museum in Mountain View has a working IBM 1401, and it's kept going by old guys who worked on the 1401 in the past. Soon, they will be gone. They have conflicts with the museum staff, who just want stuff that sits there.
The Union Pacific Railroad restored the Big Boy steam locomotive to full road operating condition a few years ago. That was a huge multi-million dollar effort. They now run it long distances for tours. Union Pacific has a Steam Shop and 50-100 employees. They get a PR benefit out of it.
The Museum of Flight in Seattle used to try to maintain some of their aircraft in flyable condition, but they seem to have given up on that.
The Jaquet-Droz automata [1] in Neuchatel, Switzerland, are still maintained, since there's still a mechanical clock and watch industry in Switzerland able to maintain such things and it's a source of national pride.
The Computer Museum in Mountain View has a working IBM 1401, and it's kept going by old guys who worked on the 1401 in the past. Soon, they will be gone. They have conflicts with the museum staff, who just want stuff that sits there.
The Union Pacific Railroad restored the Big Boy steam locomotive to full road operating condition a few years ago. That was a huge multi-million dollar effort. They now run it long distances for tours. Union Pacific has a Steam Shop and 50-100 employees. They get a PR benefit out of it.
The Museum of Flight in Seattle used to try to maintain some of their aircraft in flyable condition, but they seem to have given up on that.
The Jaquet-Droz automata [1] in Neuchatel, Switzerland, are still maintained, since there's still a mechanical clock and watch industry in Switzerland able to maintain such things and it's a source of national pride.
Functional nostalgia is expensive.
[1] https://www.aetherltd.com
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaquet-Droz_automata