Has anyone ever "leased" or "rented" an engine rather than buy?

Jim R. posted:

You rent something for utilitarian reasons. You rent a U-Haul to move. You rent a car at the airport as ground transportation for a trip. You rent a tiller to prep a garden. Why buy something you're only going to need for a very short term?

You lease something as a longer term rental with more complex conditions and obligations, but the purpose is still primarily utilitarian. You lease an apartment to have somewhere to live. You lease a car for daily transportation. Now you can even lease a smartphone to access your data plan. In all cases, it provides advantages over buying, but again for something you need.

I don't buy toy trains as a utilitarian product. The thrill isn't in running something I don't own. It is in running my trains.

Now I suppose there is someone out there who might want to rent a train for a public train show (utilitarian) or lease a train for a long-term display like a museum (also utilitarian). That's your market. A remarkably limited market.

Don't overthink this one. You are not on to some money-making scheme.

Jim -

This is a well stated reply, in which I agree with you about the utilitarian angle.  However, I might suggest that the concept is not necessarily utilitarian.  For me it taps into the discretionary side of each of use.  I don't see it necessarily as an investment.  It could be an opportunity to give others the chance to run some trains they may never buy them selves - for what ever reason.

I think the club concept is the best option, with friends letting friends run their trains a bit.  If you don't have access to a club, or chose not go that route, a temporary option could work. 

Maybe we need to change the thinking here a bit.  There are pleasure boat ownership "clubs".  You pay a monthly fee, which is not always cheap.  Then you reserve boat time when you like.  There is a fee for the time as well.  This is not inexpensive, but not as costly as outright boat ownership.  The boats are not kept for long and the fleet is always up to date as they current ones are sold off before they lose too much value.

Maybe a twist on this would work for the railroad community.  Its not utilitarian.  Its discretionary, for fun without the commitment.

Glenn

I would put this in the category of, if your first impulse is that it is a bad idea, it is most likely a bad idea.  And no amount of good intentions and effort will change the bad idea into a good one.

my trains don't like being in someone else house.    

I don't think any idea is idotic, in and of itself.  However, you do need to think the idea through completely.  And I think the fly-in-the-ointment with this idea resides in the overall market... or more specifically, the REAL DEMAND in the overall market for this type of offering.

In the professional photography world, photographers rent equipment all the time.  Most notably, super telephoto lenses that often now retail in excess of $10,000+.  Need to photograph a special assignment over a weekend and need one of these babies?  No problem, there are stores that will rent them out for several hundred dollars.  And I guess the stores feel protected, because they'll run a credit check on you AND hold a credit card with that amount of credit equal to the value of the lens available on it.

I honestly have no idea what kind of rental business some of these camera shops do, because I've never personally explored renting something.  If I need it, I buy it.  And over the long haul, I come out ahead of the game.

So that brings us back to model trains market.  Let's go into the discussion knowing that our O-Gauge corner of the world is already a niche-within-a-niche.  Strike 1.

Then we need to ask ourselves.... What is the intrinsic VALUE of renting a locomotive for a weekend, week, month, or whatever?  Do folks REALLY want to run a Big Boy on their layout "temporarily", and then return the locomotive back to the true owner as opposed to placing it on their display shelf to run it whenever the mood strikes them at some undefined time in the future?  My money says it's more of the latter even if their out the purchase price of the locomotive.  This market seems to have enough "deep pocket" players, and look how many guys jumped on board here boldly telling us they ordered 3 or 4 VL Big Boys?    So that's Strike 2.

And lastly... what is your REAL goal in renting out your locomotives?  You've already purchased them, which is money out of your pocket.  Are you trying to recoup the money spent?  Make MORE money than you spent?  Or would you really rather just sell the locomotive(s), because you've lost interest in the hobby.  If, in fact, it's the latter, then I would definitely look to SELL the locomotive(s) and move on.  By renting it (or them), you need to keep you head in the hobby with respect to marketing your product(s), and maintaining it (them), and dealing with all the potential headaches that might occur with an errant transaction.  Sounds like Strike 3 is looming in there somewhere.

Just thinking out loud.

David 

 For the person renting:

What about renting it to try it out, then if you like it go and buy your own.

For the owner renting the item:

Most firms that rent items are backed by powerful methods of getting their rented item or their costs back if the deal goes wrong, could you put something like that in place and if so would it be worth it? Security firms, Insurance, off duty cops can be expensive.

Roo.