... Changing the tooling on the ATSF Northern to make this possible was very expensive, contrary to Rocky Mountaineer's speculation. ...
T4TT, give it a rest please. 
There's nothing to speculate here. We all know that changes to existing tooling cost money. How much is the real question, and it's likely a moving target each year. So given the uncertainty of Chinese factory costs and schedules these days, the strategy of "the fewer changes the better" is Lionel's safe way around that for now. Bottom line, corners are gonna be cut wherever possible these days, 'cause it's become pretty clear there's a growing disconnect between cataloging something and then going to the well to have it made/delivered. Nearly all the importers are making that painfully clear.
While I'm sure there's a cost involved to move these switches "upstairs" under a sand dome, that alone can't be the complete cost-prohibitive factor here. After all, Lionel up'd the MSRP on these M1a steamers to $1,500, and they're telling us they still couldn't deliver the newer switch arrangement? 
No... I guess we now need to spend upwards of $2K (street-price) to get the improved slide-switches treatment reserved for Vision-Line steamers today, when we earlier saw them on a product (i.e., the Northern) with a $1,300 MSRP and $995 street-price.
Heck, even the Milwaukee Road S-3 from a few years ago had enhanced steam-chest effects along with slide-switches moved upstairs, and that jewel carried a modest (by today's standards) $995 MSRP, and most dealers sold them for under $900 when they first came out.
What a lovely trend we're seeing regarding the new prices we're expected to pay for features that had already been introduced on products costing much less. 
David
