How much is your layout worth?

[Crewlisle]

I last valued my layout for insurance purposes a few years ago just using  a general rule of thumb/guess off the top of my head.  Over the last few days I have revalued my layout by listing every item individually or in the case of rolling stock by numbers of coaches, different wagons, etc. with their current replacement values, which is normally required for insurance purposes.

I was shocked by the result.  The current replacement value is about 33% more than my original rule of thumb/guess.  Maybe it is time to check the value of your layout & check with your insurance company whether the value is included in 'Household Contents' or requires to be added as a separate item.

 

Peter

[polybear]

I believe the value to be what it would cost for a professional to rebuild the same layout to the same standard, which would be far higher than the cost of the component parts.  As an example, whilst parts for a kitbuilt loco may be £250, to have it professionally built and painted can easily top a grand.

Are we just talking layout here, or all the locos and stock in the display case/cupboard etc. etc. too?

[Pete the Elaner]

I am sure many of us are fussy when building layouts, building them to a standard rather than a budget.

t would cost an absolute fortune in time to re-build my layout the way I have done it & to get the bits which are important to me just right.

It is much easier to put a price on stock, especially if it is rtr. It is difficult to value items which are no longer available though.

[Chris M]

I just look at typical replacement cost for stock and the cost of all the bits on the baseboard - track, buildings, scenery etc. I would not include the cost of actually building the layout. If there was a total loss then I would start a new, completely different project with the funds. Once you have built a layout would you want the same thing again but built by someone a professional? The cost of having a professional build the layout would probably be considerably more than the cost of all the components.

[Dungrange]

I agree that in the event of total loss, there may be a desire to build something different.  When stating insurance values to exhibition organisers for our club layouts (not stock), I quote a few thousand pounds - typically around £7,000 for the layout.  That generally wouldn't be enough to pay someone to rebuild the same layout to professional standards, but it would provide the club with more than enough money to purchase the raw materials to build a replacement layout.

 

However, in the case of total loss of a home layout, its worth considering whether at the time of that loss, you will be physically able to build a new layout.  In my role as club secretary, I had an enquiry last year from a local gentleman looking for someone to build a layout for him.  He'd had plans to build a layout for much of his life and collected a lot of stock over many years, but had never got around to building the layout that he wanted.  Work, family and various other interests had got in the way along the years.  However, now that he was retired, he felt it was time to build that layout he'd always wanted.  The problem was that as a man in his late 60's, arthritis and less good eyesight meant that he quickly realised that he no longer has the abilities to build the layout he wants and the only way to get a layout is to commission someone to build one.  Therefore it's not necessarily about paying a professional to faithfully recreate what was lost, but to build a new layout simply because you personally are no longer able to.  I guess that depends on how much pleasure you get from operating a layout and how much of that pleasure comes from the knowledge that you personally built the layout.

Edited February 8, 2020 by Dungrange

[spikey]

How much is my layout worth?  Far more to me than it would be to anyone else ...

[AGR Model Store]

What it's worth or what the miss's think's it's worth.

 

 

Edited February 8, 2020 by AGR Model Store

[Coppercap]

4 minutes ago, AGR Model Store said:

What it's worth or what the miss's think's it's worth.

 

 

As in what you actually told the missus it cost - a lot less that it did! She'll no doubt think it's worth even less than that...

[Il Grifone]

The distaff side of the family usually put its value as less than zero - the cost of paying someone to take away 'all that junk'! 

 

I would put it at 50-100% more than the value of the parts. A guesstimate at best!

[kevinlms]

14 hours ago, spikey said:

How much is my layout worth?  Far more to me than it would be to anyone else ...

The answer is 'not much', judging by what top layouts have been listed on auction sites and get no takers for the price originally asked.

A sale price is whatever someone is prepared to pay for it.

 

Which of course has nothing to do with the original question, as to the insurance value.

[Les Bird]

I dread to think how much my layout is worth. The fact that it's located in a shed rather than the house would probably put potential insurers off anyway.

[KeithMacdonald]

On 08/02/2020 at 12:33, Coppercap said:

As in what you actually told the missus it cost - a lot less that it did! She'll no doubt think it's worth even less than that...

 

I grasped that thorn by explaining to M'Lady that we'd bought (cough) most (cough) of the stock 15+ years ago when Number One Son was a wee bairn besotted with TTTE. Back then it cost c.£X. Valuing it now against the prices for the same stuff sold on eBay, we got a magic total of c.4 times X.

 

Shocking and ridiculous in one way ... but look darling, it's been an investment!  (In return, I got that I don't quite believe you look).

 

Your mileage may vary. Terms and conditions may apply, the value of your investment may go down as well as down...

Edited February 10, 2020 by KeithMacdonald

[KeithMacdonald]

36 minutes ago, Les Bird said:

I dread to think how much my layout is worth. The fact that it's located in a shed rather than the house would probably put potential insurers off anyway.

 

Too true, and how would the cost of the security (they'd probably insist on top-of-the-range) compare to what's in the shed?

[Gwiwer]

I have always kept track of my spending by way of a spreadsheet.  That includes the cost of rolling stock, track, structures and scenic material (not necessarily all itemised; some "baskets" are listed as single purchases) and have written off the approximate value of the layouts I no longer have based on track and materials.  

 

The collection is separately insured for what I consider to be a fair new-for-old replacement value but cannot include allowances for such things as bespoke weathering which cannot be replaced. Nor can my time be insured though it has a notional value to me.  

 

I never discuss the value in public.  

[TheQ]

1 hour ago, Les Bird said:

I dread to think how much my layout is worth. The fact that it's located in a shed rather than the house would probably put potential insurers off anyway.

 Probably not, you'll be surprised .

http://www.modelrailwayinsurance.co.uk/

[Les Bird]

 

21 hours ago, TheQ said:

 Probably not, you'll be surprised .

http://www.modelrailwayinsurance.co.uk/

 

Thanks for the link, I'll follow it up

[145 Squadron]

I have been asked to supply some rolling stock (coaches) for our club layout at an exhibition and am being asked for an insurance value. The coaches were made from etched sides on donor coaches with added details; there are no equivalent RTR replacements. I know roughly what the material costs were (except some are no longer available) but how do I value my labour content? If the stock was stolen or destroyed I would probably not want to build it again myself but the cost of the hours (30+ per coach) for a professional to build replacements would be I guess be very high. I want to help the club by supplying the stock but feel if it not sufficiently covered, or is too expensive to do so, I would not be happy to let them use it. Can anyone offer advice? Thanks

[SamThomas]

There is a lot of difference between "what it is worth if it were to be sold" & "what it is worth to rebuild/replace".

 

Generally, a used layout is worth around the cost of the componant parts as you see when layouts on eBay struggle to fetch "good money".

 

The replacement value of rolling stock can be frightening.

 

Sadly, when they turn up their toes & are shunted off to the great railway in the sky the collections of someone who has told their other halfs porkies about what they have spent (& had price tickets changed) often fall foul of the less than honest buyer & fetch a fraction of their real value.

 

[Dungrange]

1 hour ago, 145 Squadron said:

Can anyone offer advice? 

 

If the model is stolen or damaged, how much money would you like to replace it?  That's what you want to give as an insurance value.   

 

As club secretary I often submit an insurance value for all members stock being taken to an exhibition based on something like X locomotives at £250 each, Y coaches at £50 each and Z wagons at £30 each to give me a ball park figure for a total value that I'll round up to the nearest £500.  Where higher value items need to be listed separately, I ask the owners for their valuation - that's my default when it's O Gauge.  I have had two members with very similar kit built locomotives (ie built from the same kit) giving me two significantly different values.  I tend to just go with the highest, since it doesn't make sense to say that member X's class 123 locomotive is worth £400, but member Y's class 123 locomotive is worth £700.  I'll just put them both in at £700, and I tend to query anything that seems out of line with what I might expect (usually values that are too low).  At one exhibition, we were exhibiting a member's private layout and I ended up doubling the value he gave me, because I didn't believe his valuation was remotely accurate.  His view was that if something happened to his layout, he would just build another one and since he intended to do that anyway at some point, it had very little value.  I don't really subscribe to that line of thinking but the value of a layout is subjective.

 

At the end of the day, the exhibition organiser will be arranging insurance for all layouts and all stock on these layouts as a single policy.  The difference in premium between insuring all layouts for say £250,000 and £251,000 is probably negligible if anything.  Therefore, go with whatever you feel is an adequate value for the coaches that you have been asked to bring.

[Wheatley]

There was a very large GWR layout featured in the Journal not that long ago, which was damaged in a fire at the owner's premises. The insurers coughed up for it to be rebuilt by professionals, including fine arts restorers if I remember correctly. 

[AyJay]

This is an interesting question and the answer will vary according to what you want to know it for?

What would you expect to pay if you bought it?

What would you be willing to sell it for?

What did it cost you to make it?

 

If it comes to selling it, it's probably not worth what you would like, but what someone else is willing to pay for it. i.e. a lot less.

If you were buying it new/commissions. Probably eye-wateringly more.

 

If it's for insurance purposes, then I'd say for off the shelf rolling stock, the current price of the equivalent or nearest equivalent.

I would also include the cost of all the material used to construct it, right down to the glue and the wood.

As for those lovely card buildings that you lovingly made over many hours....  Although your time cannot be valued, I'd try and imagine what I'd be willing to pay if I saw it in a shop window.

 

What is my layout worth?  I have no idea.  But I have no illusions that when my train has left this station,  someone will pick over the juicy bits for a song and all my creativeness may be consigned to the skip.  It's enough to make me weep!

[Gwiwer]

3 hours ago, SamThomas said:

The replacement value of rolling stock can be frightening.

If, indeed, it can be replaced at all. 
 

Insurance may pay out on a claim but there is no guarantee items could be replaced. Not just commissioned one-offs or long out-of-stock or historical pieces but relatively everyday items such as a bauxite van or Mk1 coach can be unavailable when required. 
 

Add in the unique nature of any weathering, detailing and coupler-changing for every item concerned and your precious collection is literally irreplaceable. 
 

I never discuss the cost of my collection and layouts but I know what they cost me. They are insured under specific terms on my home contents policy for a sum which matches what I paid which is therefore adjusted upwards annually.   I accept the steeply-rising cost of like-for-like replacements as a form of depreciation which is hard to calculate accurately. 
 

That does not and cannot take true account of all the weathering I apply because the time cannot be accurately quantified in cash terms (as I am not a business) and it is very hard to value a used and altered (weathered) item against the cost of the same thing new.