The Royce Files

The Royce Files has been around since December 2003. I posted a lot that first month. Reviewed last years posts. Smallest output ever. A miserly 23 posts! Only one less than 2014. My aim this year is to exceed that output. Most visitors come across the posts on The Royce Files because the Fargo Marathon or my occasional posts on model trains and Lionel. That is the bulk of the blog these days although I have blogged soccer, online advertisements, beer, holidays, my travels and a little spiritual content. As far as I know, I am the only blogger covering the Fargo Marathon in a non-conventional way since its beginning. No media pass for me. I rarely if ever cover the winners. I kind of think I cover those who come after them. Like the guy who runs without a shirt in 40 degree temperatures, Brave runner Alas, the top post last year was from the marathon. Truth, Justice, and the American Way Nothing came close to beating the reads of that post except another marathon post abo...

It not being Christmas at the writing of this entry-- let's write about Christmas! It seems every few years or so a new thing gets flung into the pantheon of Christmas.  A few years ago it was penguins. Nothing to do with the festive period except that for some that period happens during the beginning of the cold blustery period. Cute but hardly relate-able to the larger Christmas themes of peace, goodwill toward man, and Jesus. Penguins just happened to drop on the popular culture scene in a few movies and decided to settle in at the Christmas Inn next door to the reindeer, elves, Santa, gingerbread men, wise men, stars, poinsettias, and pickles. A nd yes, the pickle has official status as a Christmas symbol. Not sure why pickled herring is not. But lest you think I will gripe about this proverbial overcrowded Inn of Christmas, I will not. Instead I will introduce another symbol of Christmas that made its entrance this season. The robot discovered  While strolling ...

Back in the day when college did not break for Thanksgiving until the day before the holiday, I was instrumental in making Thanksgiving special to a bunch of college students in west central Minnesota. This silly radio drama was broadcast on KUMM   with the help of some people named Nancy, Kennedy, Lopez, Fluegel and I think Nathan. I have never received any feedback from anyone who heard it originally back in the 90s. Perhaps nobody was listening that night. I doubt another radio drama was ever mounted again on KUMM. Maybe I should re-make this show as a video for the YouTube. Here is the audio below of the ~12 minute show.

Granite City O Gaugers layout Earlier this month- November 14th to be exact- I partook of a train show in St Cloud, MN. The Granite City Train show is a twice yearly event at the St. Cloud Armory. One show is in fall and the other is in spring. This show brings in quite a number of both train enthusiasts and vendors. I would suggest that this is the biggest train show between the Twin Cities and Winnipeg and quite possibly Western Washington. Most scales were present along with much railroad collectibles and antiques. I think I even saw some standard gauge track for sale. But saw good amount of rusty or old track which I do not need. My friend and I tend to look for salvageable operating equipment in O scale. There was a modest amount at this show. This was my third time attending the show.My sub-mission for this show was to acquire more items for scenicing my dormant layout. I came out with quite an assortment which I will post later. In this post I show some of the layouts t...

So giving thanks is supposed to be healthy for you according to this article- http://www.healthline.com/health/depression/giving-thanks#2 Came across this Thanksgiving video a while back. Most assuredly the most non-traditional Thanksgiving meal concocted by a vitamin company.    So if you don't want to bother with fixing the turkey this year, swing over to Swanson and bag some of those tablets.

November is nearly half over!! And thus half the month of the celebration of model railroading has been missed here on the Royce Files. Well lots has been missing from the Royce Files as of late. I have been a pretty poor blogger. Nonetheless, let's celebrate a little model railroading today with a post about the local train (model and toy) show. The Spud Valley show has been held yearly in Fargo since the late 1970s. Its existence was in part inspired by the Twin City Model Railroad Club's multiple shows in the Twin Cities (so I overheard while wandering around this year's show.) However the Spud show incorporates much more than model trains. You can see model cars, vintage toys, toy tractors, and even a decent amount of railroad ephemeral (ie. railroad time tables, buttons, paper, calendars, hats, lanterns etc.) Plus, to my knowledge, it is the only train show in North Dakota. There are quite a few up the road in Winnipeg. I went to the show a few years ago and was a ...

My railyard is dormant  My layout has been dormant for quite some time. I redid the configuration but have yet to re-lay the track or do a power overhaul. I have also been looking for 42" turnouts and K-line switches. There are a few engines waiting to be run. I really want to get it up and running again before Christmas Dalton O-Gauge layout Visited the Dalton Threshing Reunion a few weeks ago. The smell of steam abounded. They have a little 2 foot gauge steam engine on the grounds that gets plenty of runs in during the weekend. There is also an area for model trains. The Spud Valley club brings their HO modular layout and then there is another guy with a small American Flyer layout. A large O gauge layout fills out the rest of the room along with a few tables of leftover HO pieces that must have been donated. The O layout is pretty bare for now- just a big double loop and some buildings here and there and particle board landscaping. No fancy Lionel accessories adorn ...