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 bit disappointed. Not much that interested me from the vendors. And there were only 1 or 2 layouts. But this year was different. I was pleasantly surprised by what I found. Then I was surprised that I took more pictures of farm toys and trucks than the trains. I think I have more videos of the train layouts somewhere but I know not where they are now.
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| N scale layout. |
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There were a considerable amount of N-scale layouts (although 1 might have been Z) at the show this year including the one above. I also saw a Lionel layout and talked with the guy about how he wired it. Of course the Spud Valley Club's modular HO layout was there too.
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| Lots of Tonka and Tonka-like toys |
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| Toy tractors |
There was this odd combine which I saw. Just to the left of the yellow bus there is a Campbell's Soup Combine. No clue where it originated. The Net is silent on simple searches. And yes, to the right of the bus, that Massey Ferguson combine contraption is odd too. Although my Ag Toy adviser states his father had the full size unit at one time.
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