What is a custom painted locomotive worth?

I have just completed a custom painted locomotive and am wondering what it is worth? What I have is an Atlas GP 38-2 with extended range dynamics that is painted in Chehalis Western RR. I have customized this to as closely represent the protype as I possibly could. Some of the details I have added are as follows. On the short hood I have added a Sunrise vent. On the firemans side of the cab I have added a vent, just as they had on the protype. I have also added a Sunrise debris kicker plow to the front pilot. I have custom built 2 strobes that are located on both sides of the cab. And I have also added BLMA sunshades. I have discarded the accuhate couplers and added a micro trains 1015 to the rear pilot and a 1016 to the front pilot.
Some things that are not protypically correct is the front pilot, which should have had an anti-climber pilot. Also the fuel tank is too big and I did not feel as though I wanted to hack into the frame for this project and the brake blister on the firemans side is not correct either.
Do any of you out there think this locomotive would bring $180, or is that too much?

 

It depends how rare the loco is and what the demand for it is. How about a pic to see this loco.

 

I have a couple photos I took on my phone last night but are not very good quality. I am planning on taking some tonight with my SLR and then adding some pics here tomorrow. The Chehalis Western was a Weyerhaueser owned RR that ran from the log reloads in the chehalis area to Tacoma. They had 4 GP 38-2's and 2 GP 7's. They were painted a high visibility yellow (Railbox yellow) with black sills with black roofs.

 

Without seeing it, I might pay $180 for it, if I wanted it. I've bought several custom diesels (a Pan Am GP-40-2 and a Maersk SD-40). I paid over $200 for each one. I had an SD9 custom build (LLW 4433 with a rust paint job; see it in RRPictureArchives.net) that was over $350. Not bragging, but just saying that if it's a good job, someone like me will take a shine to it, and offer your price, if its not ridiculous. Just my thoughts.

 

Since you appear to be talking about a kind of rare Type2 RR it might help to post a picture of the model and the prototype as well for comparison. One without the other wouldn't help that much I would presume.
Just a thought

 

Depends .. if your work is as good as Charlie Hopkins .. 200-225 .. if it is less quality .. who knows ..

 

Here is a photo of the one of the prototypes.

 

Here is a picture I took last night on my phone of one of the Geeps.

 

I'm not making a living off it, so I never charge that much for custom painting. I usually add a couple bucks for labor and actual cost of the parts involved for custom detailing. The two patched SP C44-9W's in my gallery sold for $120 on eBay.

The custom market is tough to gauge sometimes on what people will pay. I tried the local train show market and nothing sold. Went to eBay and my own website and sold everything within a week at higher prices than I market them at the tain show.

Brian

 

Personally, I would not buy any custom painted loco without much better pictures than the one you posted above. One needs to see the quality of the paint surface.

Check out Hien's pictures of his SD70M-2s if you want to see what I mean.

 

Its in the eye of the beholder. For the most part I've been lucky. I picked up a FURX SD-40 at a show(at the closing) done originally done by Steel Rails for $66.00. I've also paid top $$ & bartered. If the quality is there & its a desirable roadname & scheme, it'll go.

 

Hi .Me on the other hand i get $45.00 a hour for paint job and when i has my hobby 19yr ago i would get $100.00 on top of the cost of engine and and paint and as for pass car i get 35.00 and up and i been painting engine and car for 20 year so if you look at Ebay you see guy getting over $100.00 or more .Some people know what go into it and will paid for it and some people are just plan cheap and will try to get it for lower cost .Hope this help

 

I guess I'll go against most people, and say no, I wouldn't pay that much for JUST a custom painted loco. Now if it had a full detailing job (And not just one, two or three detail parts, but the whole works) then that might get you up to the $200-300 range.
The $100 to $130 dollar range is where I stay at when looking for custom painted locos, but most of the time the locos I look for are painted incorrectly (walkways/steps/handrails) and then I would have to fix it, so that drops my view of the price considerably. Yes, I do realize that factory painted locos have some of the same errors, but when I think of "Custom Painted", then I think it better be completely correct.
I had bought a few Steel Rails and Dream Designs custom jobs quite a few years ago, and I look at them now and kick myself, they are not worth what I paid for them.

Mike

 

In my opinion a custom painted loco is worth what you think. However, if you are trying to ever sell it, you must realize the market itself will determine the value for you. That "market value" may be much less than what you think it's worth. So you would have to adjust your pricing accordingly.

I custom paint locos to support my hobby, not to make a living. I strictly paint stock models and make no modifications so mine of course would be worth less. I normally charge somewhere in the neighborhood of $45-60 for the paint job. Decals are worked out seperately. When I sell an entire loco of mine that I custom painted I normally get in the range of $125-$150 apiece (road name dependant).

Hopefully Mike (aka Pastoolio) the units I did for you are pretty close to being right. I have also seen some of the Steel Rail (no longer being done - I think) and Dream Designs and believe my work is better than theirs. But who knows, some people may not think so.

Anyways, that's my 2 cents worth. In another thread, I just posted a pic of a KCS SD70ACe unit I am pretty close to finishing if you want an example of my work.

 

When I paint for people usually charge $75.00 for paint and decals on a loco and $40.00 for passenger cars. Then if the want detail added it varies from there. So I could see $180.00 but also it is an Atlas unit so I might take $10.00 off but that's just me.

 

I have only noted ONE rule of thumb. You might also find this true. Whatever a person has to sell is always percieved by the seller to be worth WAY more than the perceptions of the buyer. Asking and getting are two different things. I never sell my work, because it is worth way more to me that to anyone else. Thats the nature of it all.

 

Yes you are definitely right about that. I am actually painting 6 of these locos. The real railroad only had 4, which I am keeping all 4 for myself. I am selling one and giving the other to my dad as he used to see these locos all the time when he would be driving log truck at the reloads where these locos loaded from.

 

I just bought a KATO C44-9W Undecorated loco to have painted as a Norfolk Southern. I got a price to have it painted and decaled which is the way I think it should be. I would never pay by the hour. I was a contractor for 10 years and I feel if someone is professional enough to do specialized work they should know how long it will take and charge what they think its worth. If I think it’s too much, I’ll just pass and look for another quote.
But it is true that it’s only worth what a buyer is willing to pay for it.

 

I will be a little blunt.
The engine is the wrong phase for the prototype pictured. A much better start would have been the Walthers GP38-2 which is as close to a mid-phase GP38-2 as we are going to get for a while. The yellow is WAY off from the prototype picture.

Customers for custom painted models can be brutal. When clearing some old models out of my collection a few years ago I was a bit suprised just how low the price went. One CV GP38AC went for $60. A Life-Like MBTA F40PH with a BL2 drive and LOTS of detail work went for about $100. The biggest seller was the Grafton & Upton 44 Tonner featured in N-Scale Magazine. It was highly kitbashed (resin shell, virtually scratchbuilt mechinism) and went for $160.