First off there is a misconception here. Tooling costs today are less than they were even 30 years ago. With the CAM and CAD capabilities today, molds are made with little hand labor. Dies are not always necessary as small parts can be made in a CAM mill and drill machine or a printer but complete loco tooling still costs money that must be recovered. As for new locos; it depends of what era your layout represents. For hobbyists that model the 1940's and 1950'd era ; most popular locos in that time period have already been modeled and those that haven't look very similar to what's available. . For new era. how may people want that? The quantities of new stuff produced is low and the prices high. Even a large company like Lionel is lucky if they sell 500-1000 run of a Legacy locomotive. The market reacts only to the demand and IMO the market is still active but near saturation.
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