What do you pay for O gauge repairs?

I am more interested in them fixing it the way I want, in a reasonable time, so when I get it back I recognize it as being ours vs a hourly rate.  

Good luck!

Some places quote a fixed price for repairs they do often.

Actually for a skilled technician, 39 per hour is a reasonable rate.  

I can't afford to pay for repairs, so I fix them myself.

I'm lucky. I have a local guy who runs a shop I think just for the good of the hobby, and he's gone through and fixed a couple engines I have for $20 a pop. They're postwar, mind you, but he's gone above and beyond on them.

I pay $00.00!!!

I cant afford to pay someone else.

I fix it myself and some have found out thru

the train shows that I fix. I charge $25 for

oil, lube, and clean.

and I charge what ever the part costs if I have to replace any parts.

get the majority of my parts from Jeff Kane or

Joe Scillia.

I have seen some LHS charge upwards of $75 an hour to fix toy trains.

chaching!!

My repairmen were trained at Lionel and MTH,Lionel charges 5K for their training so keep that in mind when you are looking for a bargain.

Mikey

I don't mind paying for repairs, the freight is also pretty high if you don't have a repairman close by.

Brent

I do all my own repairs, however I do provide a repair service. I usually charge for parts and a flat rate of 20.00 per hour if that.

I will only work on analog locos (mostly post-war and older HO). $25 to clean and get running and solder the odd wire, parts are extra. I quite often waive the fee if it is for a long time customer (although I usually hit them up for a coffee!).

Lionel doesn't charge for training. You have to pay for your own lodging and transportation. They do offer test equipment but I have built my own. I think MTH has a similar setup but will leave it others to comment about that.

Like some here I fix all my own trains.

Pete

About....

....unless it's Post War vintage or earlier.  Then the 'shade tree mechanic' in me kicks into gear!

What I pay depends on how much a replacement would cost first.

One has to add round trip shipping with insurance which can be 70.00 plus. Second would be repairman's charges, if hourly, I'll skip, (I don't/won't pay for coffee/bathroom, phone answering or run to the store breaks.)

If a flat charge, I will consider.

If he returns all parts not used, or the broken parts. Including batteries, etc. He will be highly on my list.

Also is he skilled and what background he has and not just a tinkerer who happened years ago to fix his engine once.

Also warranty given on repairs and what is the take on who pays shipping for returns.

I just throw them away and buy new ones

MTH charges nothing for the training.  You do have to pay for the test sets if you want them, but I also got a killer deal on the Z4000 transformer while I was at the school.

Lionel didn't charge for training in the past, but they haven't had training for a number of years, so I have no idea what the new policy might be if and when they resume training.

I pay in "stress years"... trying to get parts!

My standard rate when my shop was open was $60/hr, billed in 10 minute increments, with a 10 minute minimum, plus parts. So if a job took 15 minutes, the charge would be $20, plus parts. A few things, like replacing coupler knuckles, took so little time I charged a flat $5, including parts.

Other things that might actually take longer than the charge would indicate, I also had flat rates for. An 'Inspect/Clean/Lube' on a single motor loco was $60, and included replacing the brushes, brush springs, and rewiring if cloth type insulation was falling apart. Two motor locos, like the #2343 F3, was $90 and included upgrading the original P/U wire, prone to melting insulation, with 18 gauge wire.

I don't really begrudge paying a good fee for service. Not at all.

But these locos are heavy! Shipping costs from Canada to the US and back just make the whole thing prohibitive! And getting one there and back without getting taxed as if it were an entirely new item by customs is tricky.

I have several locos that really do need work but the shipping is over the moon. And sometimes, the repairs don't "stick."

If I had a repair service that was within a couple of hundred miles, I would be so happy!

And few of my locos are made by the big guys.

Just remember when you scrutinize an hourly rate - what do you get paid per hour before taxes and health care deductions?  Take that number and add what your office space, air conditioning, telephone, sick and vacation pay, and liability insurance costs, and then evaluate.

Today's money, sixty bucks an hour is an absolute steal.  Still cheaper to drop it in the recycling bin and get a new one, just like you do with your auto or TV.

I have never paid to have a train car, engine, or accessory fixed.

I just fixed them myself.  If it was unrepairable or a bad design, I would take it to the next train show and sell it for parts.

If it was electronic e-unit I would try to repair before replacing the e-unit.

On the more modern trains with all the fancy electronics, I would probably be upset enough at a malfunction, to just sell it as is. 

With this, I would send you my business.

So far in about four years back in the hobby, nothing. I have fixed everything myself so far, but very little has actually broken. My Legacy 990 set had a problem I couldn't fix, but it was warranty and had to be repaired by Lionel anyway. Local Lionel tech couldn't do it, said only Lionel could fix it.

Well the guy I go to charges a good amount for repairs, but I get labor taken off of the transaction.

You are absolutely correct. The industry I am in has the sales-rep destroy any in warranty item valued under about $700. Over $700 it has to be sent back and then the factory destroys it. Nothing gets repaired. For out of warranty items, almost 100% of customers decide not to pay for return shipping and repair costs.

Very well put! It's always the other guy that is making too much money when the person complaining is probably making a lot more. We all need food and shelter and that is not getting any less expensive for anyone that I know of.

I only had to use MTH one time, the locomotive was two months out of warranty. They replaced a board for free.

     I also use my local hobby shop, even for tire replacements. Bert and Elmer always take good care of my equipment.

Gary

• Cheers from The Detroit and Mackinac Railway.

$35 per hour, 1 hour minimum.

What, me worry?

We charge $22 per hour.

Find a friend like I have who fixes the 1% of my engines that I can't get running. His charges are extremely high though...1 pizza and some soda! He got this mess running after on bought it on eBay without knowing for sure which # steam switcher it was. It turned out to be a #231 and runs perfectly fine even though it's wiring was all screwy.

Tom 

$75 to show up, 2 beers to look it over, a pizza to cover mental pondering 

$25/ hr the reet of the way--- on a full stomach.

I go for the service and people I feel I can trust, depending on if it is out of warranty, if in warranty I send back to the manufacturer, which in most cases for me is MTH, as I have not bought any new Lionel engines in a long time, except for ones in a set or two and they run fine.

I live on the west coast, and I found a gentleman in Ohio, that always went above and beyond for what I was asking for and did super repairs. He also had no issue explaining things to me in layman's terms so I could understand my roster a little better since I operate more of the newer stuff. On one repair I felt he did not charge me enough and sent him extra.

JoeG

The postwar stuff I learned early on how to fix it myself; part of my enjoyment in the hobby.  Unfortunately I do have some newer stuff I can't fix.  I have a conventional k-line Mikado with a shorted out tender tether.  I paid Charles Ro $10 for them to tell me they can't do anything with it.  I finally found a replacement tether from Brassuer, but turns out the pins in the connector were configured differently and their heat sealed into the connector so I can't swap them.  That's another $15 I'm out.  Gonna search for another, or worst case, maybe hotwire it from the loco side.

I own my own repair business and charge 40.00 + parts. I always have work. Not going to get rich, but enough to cover the bills plus restock parts. I know in some other parts of the country the charges are higher. Sometimes I 'loose' money with high end electronic problems because of the time it takes to find the problem and correct it You can't charge for the 'real' time it takes.

If fix my own stuff if I can get the parts. There is always the cost of the parts.  If there is a lot of labor, I charge myself $100 per hour so I make a lot of money at it.

I would not fix other peoples stuff,not that I am qualified. Biggest problem for me is not the electronics, but the tedious disassemble and cheap construction of some of the products. I had many plastic journals snap on engines shells for example when the screw was removed for example.   I have fixed  countless items of mine that did not work out of the box.

  I used to have a business fixing arcade games. Way back I charged $50 per hour for businesses, $20 per hour for home visits. Often I fixed things for free.  There were many dishonest, or inept repair persons doing it. My worst nightmare was servicing items these people or the user had worked on. Cut and twisted together wires without fasteners or insulation,foil on fuses to get it working, oiling of solenoid plungers, or a machine with a box of loose parts inside, etc. 

Dale H