We have to be realistic about costs - vs - what we want them to be. About 25-30 y ears ago I asked Bowser to if they would make a PRR 4 bay H21 hopper as they were doing in HO. Their reply was that the dies/tooling for the body would cost about $75,000 to begin with and they didn't think they could sell enough.
Based on that I would guess the dies/tooling for just the shell for the SD40 has to be at least 100,000 today. If so and you sold 100, each one would have to cover 1000 in costs before you make anything. If you sold 1000, (probably realistic number in O), each one has to cover 100 for cost of shell tooling. Then you need to do the frame, the trucks, the drive train, add detail parts and assemble them. then you need to ship them to US or where-ever. After all that, you need to make enough on them to help pay your mortgage and your grocery bill. So 7-800 for a plastic/diesel does not sound so outrageous.
