Was reading the back pages of the model railroader as I have never done before and I see a few advertisements for train layout insurance. I feel that is such a waste for any typical model railroader who does not have that monster train layout or collection. Besides I have homeowners insurance so if my layout burned up, flooded, tornado takes out the house or theft occurs I am covered. Is it for the people who live in apartments with a $150,000 collection? Get it? Living in an APARTMENT with a collection worth enough to buy a home? LOL Do any of you have that insurance and is it very expensive as I assume? I have replacement value insurance for the items in my home so it should cover the value to replace all my blue box with newer rtr versions, My old 15" tube televisions replaced to 55" LCD flat screens, my 8 track replaced with a CD player and my 39yo wife replaced with a 21 year old hottie. LOL
MM,
You should verify with your own insurance company whether or not your policy adequately covers items like hobbies. It may but maybe not enough. Sometimes if collections/layout values reach a certain amount, a rider policy may be necessary. Better to find out for sure than to be sorry later.
Tom
You would be surprised at what your homeowners insurance DOESN’T cover. Flood damage for one, you have to purchase special insurance for that. Your model trains most likely won’t be covered for full replacement value (if they’re covered at all) but for what’s called fair market value, so if some bean counter looks up the prices on Ebay and sees that they’re selling for less than new price and says that’s what your trains are worth then that’s what you get. I used to work for an insurance company and I’ve seen it happen. If you want your collection covered for it’s full value including new replacement value then the specialty insurance is the way to go.
Not a waste at all.
As has been stated good luck trying to get even the “We cover everything” Insurance companies from picking up the Tab if your collection gets destroyed, Vandalized or stolen, I’m speaking from experience here. A good friend back home lost a good portion of his Locomotives and Rolling stock to thieves during a home break in.
The insurance company rep actually laughed when the guy tried to submit a claim.
Another friend lost his entire layout in a fire, the insurance company would cover the mans Golf clubs but not his Trains.
If you have over a Grand invested in your Trains, you need to consider covering them, if not make peace with the fact that if anything happens you will be footing the bill to replace them.
Bad news for you, Your home owners insurance doesn’t cover Squat.
Call your insurance man and he’ll confirm that for you. When you figure out what you have in your train collection you’ll think twice about insurance. In photos, and layout time and materials and you will come up with a number a lot more than what you though it lto be.
I have 72 engines , over 480 pieces of rolling stock , a 4.5 x 9.5 foot layout Ho layout in my den and a 12x12 foot layout IN O scale at Xmas time and abouts 500 train photos With a insured value of 21K And I live in and Apartment condo. and my home insurance doesn’t cover any of it. So you better pay attention to what these fellows are telling you, and call your insurance man now.
Good luck
Mike
Read your homeowner’s insurance policy. If it’s like most, it covers the following items up to a specified limit, depending on what you told the broker you wanted at the time you purchased it:
Dwelling or Mobile Home; Separate (other) Structures; Personal Property; Loss of Use; Personal Liability; and Medical Pay to Others.
The amount in the block labeled Personal Property covers furniture, clothing, trains, dishes, etc. Then estimate how much your trains are worth at a depreciated value or “fair market value” and see what’s left to cover everything else that may be totally destroyed in a fire or other catastrophe.
You can raise the amount of coverage for these items, but your insurance cost will go up accordingly.
Insurance is a gamble – you’re betting that something bad is going to happen, and the insurance company is betting that nothing will. If nothing bad happens, they win.
As dull as it is, always read your entire policy.
Some policies won’t cover you if are away from home for more than two weeks, for instance!
And review your policy periodically as well. Your $2000 model train collection today may well grow to be worth $20,0000 in a few years.
Related to the NMRA thread, I believer the NMRA offers a group policy to its members.
I found just the opposite to be true. I got broke into and cleaned out once. Cameras, jewelry, tools, fishing equipment, stereos. They covered everything. No questions asked. (Farmers Insurance)
I showed my current agent my layout building and trains and he said they would be covered up to $10,000 against theft/damage. He said if my collection goes over that, just call him and he’d adjust the policy.
I think the main reason for a train specialty policy is try and convince a State Farm agent that your BLI/PCM Brass Big Boy actually cost $5000. Layout insurance would know what your stuff was worth.
My agents have always told me to take pictures or videos of everything and keep them in a safe place.
When I got my policy not this year i thoroughly read it. Now I’m in Sweden as you know so this might or might not be relevant for Americans. Anyways, according to them railroad items where “theft” items so the insurance only replaced values up to 100000 SEK(about 15,000$) The rest would be up to me to replace. But, when I spoke to a salesman about it, he proclaimed that “No, the insurance will cover it anyways”. But when I called the damage department there was another story. They simply said that they would NOT go above 100000 limit. So checking with the guys who actually pay you is better then talking to a salesman who gets a profit if you sign the paper.
Just my opinion.
Magnus
Loather, its not “train specialty” insurance, its a collectors insurance policy. Buying insurance isn’t rocket science, you tell the agent/broker/whatever what you actually own and they tell you what you need. The problem is that most people don’t review their insurance needs every year like they should. How many people buy a house, set up their insurance like I described and then go out and buy 20 grand worth of furniture over the next few years, buy a new big screen TV when the insurance company still thinks you have a old 26" one or how about one of those big fancy $1500 barbecue when you don’t even have one on your policy? The same goes for model trains. My insurance company, State Farm told me that if I go over a certain dollar amount in my train collection then I would need “collector insurance”. Sure not everybody has 100+ loco’s or 500+ pieces of Intermountain, Athearn Genesis, you know the top of the line stuff so they may not need collector insurance. I on the other hand do. I also have a very large Diecast car collection and my basic home owners insurance won’t cover it. It will cover say 10 Franklin Mint cars but not 200 of them. Its very important to review your policy every year to protect yourself so you won’t get burned down the road. To many people blame the insurance companys when they don’t get fully compensated when in reality its their own fault.
It seems to me, not being in the business, that you pay for a defined set of limits for only defined hazards. Once they pay up to their limits, you had better have deep pockets or a large piggy bank that didn’t melt in the fire.
It’s a balancing act. Can you save money over time by carrying a hefty deductible? If you elect to cover the first $5000, it may save you $50/year. If you accept the risk for the first $10K, your premium may drop by as much as $100/year…I dunno, I’m just speculating here. So, over a 15 year period, you might save $1500 in premiums…is that enough to replace your trains in the 15th year when your trains get stolen? Nope. So, you will have to pony up and either get extra coverage for a price, or do certainly check with your policy holder and get a letter from them (words over the phone are really cheap…ask anybody) about the fact, or verify for yourself if they provide you with the precise statement in the policy that should satisfy your requirements.
Really quick answers:
- Fire
- Theft
- Natural disaster
- Man-made disaster
Note that a man-made disaster doesn’t have to be a war or terrorist attack. It can be as simple (and devastating) as a misdirected motor vehicle coming through the wall. We seem to have a couple of that variety every week here in Sin City.
Also, once your model railroading progresses beyond the, “Toy train set on a card table,” level, you will be amazed just how valuable it is. Try making a complete and honest inventory, then matching up with CURRENT MSRP. Once you do, you’ll head for your insurance agent’s office so fast the ground will be smoking along your route…
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
My home owners policy covers my trains up to the limit of the policy for home contents. If I have speciality items such as brass, DCC equipment (which to the insurance company is the same as a computer); I need to have an inventory and photos to verify the value and conditions of the items.
Jeff is correct when he stated, you would be surprised what a home owners policy does not cover". The answer as to whether you should buy insurance to cover your layout and equipment lies with a call to your insurance company. Find out what they cover and don’t cover. Then, find out what it will cost you to cover your items.
The next big question is the break even point. If I have $2000 worth of value, but the insurance would cost ne an extra $200 a year, and assuming that I am not adding much more each year, then in 10 years I would have paid the insurnace company $2000.
Now I seriously doubt that the extra for insurance would be that expensive, a rider should not cost more than $25 a year for $10,000 of value. ( If you live in a flood plain, it could be considerably higher ).
Insurance? The house and contents is adequately insured.
Trains is the least of our worries. I can always start over again from nothing, done it before; so I dont worry about train insurance.
We ensure the budget is cash only and is positive each month. We dont open any unecessary lines of bills or debt. So, train insurance is out. If I lost the house right now and recieved the coverage we can start over again from nothing as soon as closing is done on a new home and prices these days are getting really good.
There are things you cannot take with you when you depart from this life. Once this is understood, you can simplify your financial world greatly and not be burdened with all these little expenses and debts.
$50,000 coverage insurance with full theft and buglary insurance was quoted for
$293!! That is expensive!! WHOA!
I also did a quote for $20,000 and it was $145 a month! Now that is pretty steep for a smaller collection.
My friend has a huge toy collection that he said was valued at around $250,00 from this same insurance company you would not believe how much the quote was
$1038!
Now I see why a lot of modelers do not have that kind of insurance.
By the way that was quoting in the state of Mass so it may be lower by state but cant be too much.
By the way it was quoted for the state of Mass
I’ve got a rider through my company that’s quite affordable. I’ll leave the company name out of this (to avoid the appearance of advertising), but until recently, they restricted theior clientele to active and reserve military officers.
Gievn that I move a lot due to the reuqirements of military service, this sort of rider is very necessary for me. Were the government contract movers to trash my layout during a move, I’d be lucky simply to recover the cost of some of the components with a large arbitrary “depreciation” thrown in. The policy rider makes up the difference so that if I do lose the layout in a move, I can come close to replacing it.
The same covers natural disasters. I got the rider when I was stationed in Florida (we had 3 hurricanes hit in one year - 2004!) and this summer I’m being reassigned to Nebraska where tornadoes are an issue.
I can say I don’t pay nearly as much as your Massachusetts quote.
Like a lot of others have stated. Read your policy. I did, and found that they would only pay $10,000 on things damaged in the building. I have about $50,000 in my trains. Then I went on to read my flood insurance policy. Same thing but this time, the “detatched” building (where my layout is) wasn’t covered at all.
I pay an extra $600.00 a year for more coverage and flood insurance coverage on the detatched building. You have to remember that insurance is a gamble but if I do ever need it it’s there.
My wife and i live in a hurricane and flooding prone area and insurance is a must not to mention it’s relatively pricey here also. I’ve been in the Houston area for 25 years and so far have put three new roofs on three different houses due to hail, a tropical storm, and a hurricane. I’ve also lost a brand new car in a flood. Insurance is a must have thing in these parts.
I pay 12 dollars a month for 60000 dollars worth of collector insurance. 120 dollars a year suits me fine just for the piece of mind. I would look around if I were you, the quotes you got are not reasonable at all.