Sixty years ago refurbs would be much of the work going on at any large railway works - taking engines apart, stripping them down to the chassis and reassembling almost a new one in their place. The ingenuity today's preservationists demonstrate in doing this without any of the facilities of a plant is truly a thing to behold.
(Source: some of my family restore steam engines. I once tried to drive one and I was terrible.)
Here's the process.[1] This had to be done every 120,000 miles or so, which is every 1-2 years. On top of that, there's a few hours a day of routine daily maintenance.[2]
I wish they'd do something a bit more streamlined like "Mallard"
See https://prrt1steamlocomotivetrust.org for more info on the new Pennsylvania T1 locomotive that's being built.