Value of a TE engine needed

This topic has 13 replies, 9 voices, and was last updated 28 December 2022 at 16:41 by John Haine.

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27 December 2022 at 09:13 #626273
Tony Martyr
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@tonymartyr14488
I built a Bolton design triple expansion engine together with a (too small) boiler and water feed system. I now intend to gift the engine to the engine test facility of a specific University and need to know the monetary value for insurance purposes. I was surprised to calculate that the materials including castings would now cost close to £1000 but what it would cost to replace as a finished bought item I have no idea.

Your suggestions would help conclete the paperwork!

Tony
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27 December 2022 at 09:13 #28969
Tony Martyr
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@tonymartyr14488
27 December 2022 at 10:17 #626288
noel shelley
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@noelshelley55608
Size and workmanship will play a large part in valueing . A picture would help. Noel.
27 December 2022 at 10:50 #626292
Hopper
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@hopper
Number of hours of work it took to build it, multiplied by what your local machine shop or motor mechanic charges per hour?
27 December 2022 at 11:20 #626294
Tony Martyr
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@tonymartyr14488
I have given up trying to load a photo from my TE album but several photos are available including one called 'engine as run'. I would guess that there are a couple of hundred hours involved in the construction some even at a modest £49 per hour plus materials that would make up an unlikely selling price of circa £9000
27 December 2022 at 11:25 #626296
john halfpenny
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@johnhalfpenny52803
At the other end of the scale you can compare the ratio of the cost of a common kit (10V?) and the asking price of a finished model on ebay. Probably a maximum of 1:5.
27 December 2022 at 11:28 #626298
Dave Halford
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@davehalford22513
It's likely to be worth whatever Station Road Steam could sell it for.
27 December 2022 at 12:09 #626307
Michael Gilligan
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@michaelgilligan61133
Posted by Tony Martyr on 27/12/2022 11:20:13:

I have given up trying to load a photo from my TE album but several photos are available including one called 'engine as run'. […]

.

For convenience: **LINK**

https://www.model-engineer.co.uk/albums/member_album.asp?a=18820

MichaelG.
28 December 2022 at 10:21 #626427
Dave Halford
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@davehalford22513
Posted by Dave Halford on 27/12/2022 11:28:52:

It's likely to be worth whatever Station Road Steam could sell it for.

Stuart major beam castings £1240 + vat

Sells in fine condition £2850

Reeves Bolton castings £1244 + vat

sells maybe £4000 painted
28 December 2022 at 10:52 #626440
Clive Foster
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@clivefoster55965
Realistically the buy another price would be in the region of 2 or 3 times materials cost unless there was something extra special.

Which assumes there are enough around for a proper market to exist.

Has to be said that for a goodly proportion of models there is no proper "specific thing" market. Price is mostly a wet finger thing juggling how much disposable income the potential purchaser has against his or her "Thats nice / cool or whatever. I'd like one of those if the price is right." assessment.

Clive
28 December 2022 at 11:06 #626442
Hopper
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@hopper
Posted by Dave Halford on 28/12/2022 10:21:12:

Posted by Dave Halford on 27/12/2022 11:28:52:

It's likely to be worth whatever Station Road Steam could sell it for.

Stuart major beam castings £1240 + vat

Sells in fine condition £2850

Reeves Bolton castings £1244 + vat

sells maybe £4000 painted

4000 sounds about right for insurance purposes. It is kind of nominal and moot anyway. Were the original to be stolen or destroyed, the university would be hard pressed to find an identical or even very similar unit for sale anyway. Maybe add an extra 1000 for the boiler etc?
28 December 2022 at 13:25 #626479
JasonB
Moderator
@jasonb
I would say £4K is high based on ones I have seen for sale in the past but if you are insuring for what it might cost to have a replacement made then that figure would leave you rather out of pocket.

Good example of that is the smaller Stuart beam castings sell for $420 but a ready made one from then is £2700, yet as Dave's figures show you can pick up the much larger major beam for a similar amount. Same sort of thing for a Galloway hit and miss engine, when I built mine castings were £600 or you could buy ready to run for £6000 which makes Tony's £9000 to have a replacement made about right.
28 December 2022 at 14:47 #626492
Tony Martyr
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@tonymartyr14488
Thanks for the suggestions and much common sense expressed – there is no established market for such rare items but I have decided that £4000 is the value to put into the deed of gift to the University.

I have a (small) issue with the implication that there is some sort of value/content equivalence between the Bolton TEx engine and any size of beam engine – having built and run both I will say that the triple is an order of magnitude more difficult to build and commission than a single cylider beam engine.
28 December 2022 at 16:41 #626515
John Haine
Participant
@johnhaine32865
Some auction houses do specialist sales of fine models, motorbikes etc. Onesuch is Dreweatts and they put the results of auctions on their website – you can see what was sold and the closing bids:

https://auctions.dreweatts.com/past-auctions/drewea1-10281?categoryCode=MOD&orderBy=highEstimate%20desc%2ClowEstimate%20desc%2CsequenceNumber

No TE engines listed I think but it gives you a data point at least.

Or you could ask them for a valuation, but if ot selling through them I guess they would charge you for it.
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