Francine,
I spoke with Ryan at Lionel as well and I get your point. Remember in 2017 they did do some new tooling. So maybe they can do one piece of new tooling in 2018. For now don't just limit yourself to cost at this point. When the list get's narrowed down that will more likely come into play. And who knows, if Lionel see's enough interest they may be willing to do some tooling.
Rocco