I do mostly O gauge, but have some American Flyer. The wheel set on the Franklin tender broke and I glued it together and when I went to run the loco, it would not run. It was cold. I tried to hot wire it, without success. So, I went to the LHS and was charged $25.00 for the following: when I put the wheels back in the truck, I failed to align them properly, since this is two rail operation. Lionel doesn't matter, as it is three rails. So, the LHS merely switched the wheels and charged me $25.00. Is this a grabber or what? I have had other items repaired there and originally they were cheap, but as I dropped off more stuff, the price gradually has gone up. So, I will spread my repair work around. BUT, I learned a lesson about Flyer wheels.

Best,

Mark

You got off cheap. Most repair services charge a minimum of $35 just to place it on the bench. I used to have a flat bench fee of $25 with $10 each additional hour plus parts.

PRRDave

HI prrdave,

Thanks for the perspective.

Mark

True story

When I did repairs for a local train store we charged a "bench fee" of $45.00.

A customer brought a PW Lionel that made a "grinding" sound when it was running. All the Senior Repair Man had to do was oil the motor bearing. When the customer complained about charging $45.00 to put oil on the locomotive the tech replied without breaking stride " Sir I charged you a penny for the oil and $44.99 for me knowing where to put it".

Brad Rock

Hi Brad,

The answer appears to be that I should learn more about Flyer, so I could recoup that "$44.99" (as it were) down the line. Money is fungible and knowledge is power, so I will educate myself.

Additionally, "profit" is not a dirty word. But, there are many ways to make a profit, one way being repeat business. If you squeeze every penny out, then people get upset and if you argue with the customer (as the owner of the business), you always loose. Beat to keep them happy.

I'm self-employed and over the years treat people the way I want to be treated. I've been in the same location with the same phone number 24 years. Most times, people expect to pay the most and are pleasantly surprised when that does not happen. They come back. The send their friends. They send their family, etc.

Its like fishing and the bigger the net you have, the more fish you will catch.

So, I thought I found someone to do repair work, who would get volume and I would over time, pay him enough to make a decent profit, whereas now I realize its adversarial. He/s a noce guy and I will still use him, but stretched out over longer time and I will do better research before I give him something.

Best,

Mark

Mark:

You are absolutely right. I agree with you profit is not a dirty word and one expects to and deserves to be treated fairly in business.

I am a AF guy too in addition to Lionel. Repairing AF can be very frustrating at times but also can be quite rewarding. Unfortunately, Gilbert did not lavish their repair folks with anything as elaborate as Lionel to help with their repairs. I recently showed a friend of mine the hand written service instructions sent from Gilbert to their repair shops for a loco I just bought from him. "No wonder I couldn't get it to run" was his comment (and I'm still working on it)!

Best of luck and if you need any help or advice I and other forum members will be glad to help!

Brad

quote:

When I did repairs for a local train store we charged a "bench fee" of $45.00

Wow, I need to raise my fees.

I charge an avrage of 20 plus parts to repair an item, Looks like I should raise that to what I am seeing on this list..... Maybe when the economy gets better

quote:

Originally posted by barrister2u:
So, I went to the LHS and was charged $25.00 for the following: when I put the wheels back in the truck, I failed to align them properly, since this is two rail operation. Lionel doesn't matter, as it is three rails. So, the LHS merely switched the wheels and charged me $25.00.

Did they give you an estimate when you dropped it off?
Yeah, it pays to learn as much as possible about your hobby then it won't cost you to do as many things. Also nice to have some friends that know this stuff so you can get free advice :>) .......dave

No estimate given, because I've used this person several times before and he was very reasonable. For example, $6 to repair the linkage on a Lionel 682 loco. There were other similar repairs. So, I just dropped this item off.

Best,

Mark

Also living in Harleysville I know which shop you are referring to. My dad collects AF and I found a piece of rolling stock at a train show whose body was in great shape but it needed new couplers. I forget the actual price but I didn't spend more than $15 for the couplers and installation - this was 2 years ago. I have an Operating Lumberjacks accessory which is dead and I was going to take it there to get a new motor put in now I think I'll see if I can get the motor from Lionel and mess with it myself.

--Greg

Hi Greg,

The guy I use is from Q-town and may be someone different from the other person you and I may have in mind.

Anyway, I received a note from the repair guy and it appears that he did spend a lot of time trouble-shooting the loco and I now agree it is a fair price.

Beat,

Mark

Mark, I do repairs on American Flyer and postwar Lionel, and Marx; I live in the wilds of PA, just north of Cabela's. If you need anything done, I can handle most things, and I have a friend who does the difficult stuff like armature rewinding, quartering drivers and the like. My phone number is in my profile if I can be of any help. I have seen tender wheels swapped around like you described, but usually it is part of a routine service, new brushes and the like. Like the one guy on the forum said, he charges $20 for labor plus parts, I do the same; I used to charge a flat fee, but parts costs have gone up, since we are such a small market, expenses are harder to recoup.

quote:

Originally posted by barrister2u:
I do mostly O gauge, but have some American Flyer. The wheel set on the Franklin tender broke and I glued it together and when I went to run the loco, it would not run. It was cold. I tried to hot wire it, without success. So, I went to the LHS and was charged $25.00 for the following: when I put the wheels back in the truck, I failed to align them properly, since this is two rail operation. Lionel doesn't matter, as it is three rails. So, the LHS merely switched the wheels and charged me $25.00. Is this a grabber or what? I have had other items repaired there and originally they were cheap, but as I dropped off more stuff, the price gradually has gone up. So, I will spread my repair work around. BUT, I learned a lesson about Flyer wheels.

Best,

Mark

On the one hand most places rightfully have a baseline charge for "taking a look" On the other hand, I would have taken a quick look (if you were to have dropped it off while I was on sight) and probably noticed the wheels and flipped them and tried it. if it ran I would have sent you on your way. If you wanted anything more than that, you would have gotten charged. If you dropped it off, and picked it up, you likely were going to get charged. If your LHS does good reliable work, you should (and it sounds like you do) support them, time is money, and taking an engine apart is not usually a five minute deal (your wheel flip likely could have been) In the early 90's I worked for The Depot in Lantana Florida and the base charge was $25-35 depending on the engine and went up if I had to do any serious work, of course parts were extra.$75-100 was not uncommon. Now a repair could be anything from getting a stickey milk car working to refurbing an entire train set so charges would vary. It was fun to me, I'd sit on a stool at a counter and rebuild 10-12 engines a day during the X-mas season (everything from F-3's, 671's, 262's, and modern engines, to Flyer to Marklin). I would clean everything, E unit, motor, everything since I touched I was responsible for it. It was fun for a kid in college. Ran into a lot of good trains the re too

This is an update. I originated the thread. The repairman realized I was a little unhappy, so he made it up on some other repairs, charging me less than what I expected. Besides S, I also gave him some Maerklin gauge 1 to repair and he was very patient with some boards that had issues. So, I am a happy camper. I prefer to keep one steady repair person.

Best,

Mark

quote:

Originally posted by Brad Rock:
True story

When I did repairs for a local train store we charged a "bench fee" of $45.00.

A customer brought a PW Lionel that made a "grinding" sound when it was running. All the Senior Repair Man had to do was oil the motor bearing. When the customer complained about charging $45.00 to put oil on the locomotive the tech replied without breaking stride " Sir I charged you a penny for the oil and $44.99 for me knowing where to put it".

Brad Rock

Before we stopped doing train repairs, our shop rate was $65.00/hour. Same rate we use in our other service departments.

barrister2u,
Back when I repaired Flyer Trains, there was never a charge for reversing the wheel sets. What ever happened to the words, thats all that it needed. It runs fine now.

You got off cheap. My LHS wanted 60 dollars to change one of my ZW rollers!
Needless to say I bought the rollers and rivets for 3.00 and did all four myself in less than 30 minutes...

quote:

You got off cheap. My LHS wanted 60 dollars to change one of my ZW rollers!
Needless to say I bought the rollers and rivets for 3.00 and did all four myself in less than 30 minutes...

Wow. For about $40.00 more I would have completely rebuilt the transformer including
1. New cord
2. New rollers
3. New heavy duty solid state whistle diodes or original style disc as per customers request.
4. New breaker
5. Transformer completely disassembled and all parts cleaned and inspected.
6. Everything reassembled and tested
If some of these parts are not required the bill is reduced by the cost of those parts.

There were a few that thought this was too much. Go figure.

quote:

Originally posted by Forest:

quote:

You got off cheap. My LHS wanted 60 dollars to change one of my ZW rollers!
Needless to say I bought the rollers and rivets for 3.00 and did all four myself in less than 30 minutes...

Wow. For about $40.00 more I would have completely rebuilt the transformer including
1. New cord
2. New rollers
3. New heavy duty solid state whistle diodes or original style disc as per customers request.
4. New breaker
5. Transformer completely disassembled and all parts cleaned and inspected.
6. Everything reassembled and tested
If some of these parts are not required the bill is reduced by the cost of those parts.

There were a few that thought this was too much. Go figure.

I'm sure you've heard the engineer's dictum before: if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: RoyD,

Yep you can buy a complete rebuilt ZW and refurbished from a guy I met at a train show for 90.00. The key is to note when enough is enough. I do all my own repairs, just never replaced the rollers and the guy had the fixture right there! Figured it would take him 2 minutes and may be 12.00 bucks...

When I got back into post war trains I quickly found out it is not cheap to have engines repaired. One shop I tried at first charges 85.00 minimum,another 95.00 an hour. Another shop is known for telling you an item cannot be repaired due to lack of parts so he can sell you a new transformer or what ever.I understand all about business and overhead but most customers will not come back if you screw them.I just fixed a starter set 4-4-2 engine for a little boy
for parts only after the hobby shop he asked said it would be too expensive to repair so he would be better off buying a new one. I know his dad will never buy from that place again.
Rob

Good for you Rob!,
You may have planted the seed for that little boy to love trains for years to come....
I was handed a Thomas the train in HO the other day, I had to give the bad news to the Mom that the steam chest and gears where broken and I could not save it. I told her to secretly buy a new on and dispose of the new one so her 5 year old would not be 'crushed' ...