Two thoughts.
1) Maybe Lionel got screwed. There is a lot of turbulence in the Chinese labor market now. Chinese suppliers (in other industries) that I am working with have simply renegde on their production agreements if they have labor problems or even find a better deal to fill their factory, leaving the supplier holding now-empty promises. Maybe this happened. I see everyone: Lionel, MTH, WBB, even Menards with its most recent Feed and Seed, having quality and production problems, so I am not assuming that this is Lionel's fault.
2) It can't be hard to make one yourself! It's a frigging plastic box on two standard O-gauge trucks, with a rather simple paint scheme. Nothing other than a flatcar would be easier to scratch build. The paint scheme looks at first blush like it would require three rather straightforward masking steps, and you could buy the lettering you need at from that vinyl lettering website we've talked about here.
