They have apparently cancelled the whole production run. So they didn't single you out and cancel your order. And the reasons could be anything from lack of enough total orders (the typical reason) to a production problem.
Personally I wondered why they decided to place a large shark fin in place of the usual brakeman figure on the operating box car. Those brakeman figures are pretty lightweight and there is some obvious clearance space between the bottom of that figure and the slit opening in the roof of the box car. Not sure how well that shark fin and bubble stream would have worked. But who knows what the real issue was.
BUT I do agree it would be courteous of Lionel to have some sort of product cancellation link on their website. It might not do away with the disappointment, but at least you would know, without have to wait for the anticipated ship date to find out.
You cannot always rely on their shipping schedule for this information, as we have read here many times. Sometimes a product just disappears from that list, but is still in the production pipeline. But how would anyone know? Once in a great while, one of the larger dealers will post a list of product cancellations here on the forum.
EDIT: Upon reading Jake's comment above, I googled the set. Easier to do that than use the search function here. Drum roll please....
