@Prr7688 posted:Not challenging this statement (I have full faith in what you say), but I am curious as to why?
Two reasons:
- Production costs on brass locomotives are peaking currently. See Lionel's hybrid prices as an indicator.
- It is just difficult to get 75 O scalers to agree on anything from Sunset / 3rd Rail. I haven't seen a locomotive project in many years that had that kind of consensus. Unlike diesels where multiple units are common, steam is typically a one and done affair.
I wish it was otherwise, but will anyone be willing to pay around $2000 for a scale D16? While we say it over and over, there is not much of a cost savings based on size of the locomotive and we always fight the perceived notion that bigger is more expensive when regardless of size, price is about the same.
I have no insider knowledge on Lionel's hybrid locomotive production numbers, but I suspect they are not as high as some might think. From a manufacturer's standpoint, brass is designed for low production numbers in the 100 range. Tooling for die-cast has to be in the 500-1000 range to pencil out remotely.
