The Royce Files

I spent a considerable amount of time at the Minnesota State Fair in my formative years. I even lived and worked at the Fair a few years 1990s. I am not sure when I first attended the fair but it must have been the early 1980s, well after this promotional program was broadcast on WCCO TV.  One of my earliest memories at the fair was getting lost. I still cannot believe my parents found me- but I ended up turning myself in to the fair lost and found in the evening.  It is rare these days if a station spends this much time on a local event. A whole half hour was dedicated to showing the highlights of the Fair during the Bicentennial in 1976. But WCCO was known for local content during this time period. The venerable Dave Moore had a hand in a lot of it.  On this program another noted WCCO anchor and also a Minnesota native, Bill Carlson, takes the helm as he wanders through the fair and experience the sights and sounds.   Not much has changed. The bones are intact...

I went to a Twins game back in early June. First one I ever attended at Target Field and first one in probably 20 years. The game was scheduled to be a Royce Lewis shirt give away. The problem was Lewis was sent down to AAA a few weeks before after having a rather lackluster spring. The day before the game, Lewis was still on the St. Paul roster. He actually had been playing fairly well at the cross town minor league affiliate, St. Paul Saints. Eventually, the June 6th game turned into a Byron Buxton shirt give away. However, that also became a problem since Buxton landed on the injury list. Lewis was recalled that day while the Saints were going ahead with a Royce Lewis shirt promotion.   So I go the game and get a Buxton shirt, not see Buxton play- Kreidler took his spot in center and Royce Lewis played 2nd and 1st. I saw Joe Ryan have an average outing, Bobby Witt Jr break some record, and West Fargo native Matt Strahm give up a homer to the now DFA'd Orlando Arcia. I expec...

My Alma Mater, Park HS of Cottage Grove, recently put on the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat  which I also did at Park and it made me think- is there a record of Park musicals since the move from the old building in St. Paul Park to one on 80th St in Cottage Grove in 1965?  I tried in 2007 to create such a list. It is actually somewhere on this blog. Whew, almost 20 years ago! Now I could dig through a bunch of yearbooks or South Washington County Bulletins that I have no easy access since I am out of the region now. So for now I will rely on my memory and what I can piece together on the net. Accessing memory..... Park High School originally occupied a building in St. Paul Park. By the 1960s the school outgrew the space so a new campus was built over in the neighboring city of Cottage Grove. The old campus ended up getting used as junior high for a time but then became apartments and community space. The new campus included a music 'complex' across the ...

Bert Blyleven is one of my favorite baseball players. Partially because of his antics and partially because of his subtle dominance on the mound. I have a small collection of his baseball cards. Born in the Netherlands, he immigrated to the US as a child and developed an interest in baseball growing up in the California during a period of Dodgers success. He ended up playing ball in high school and then was drafted by the Minnesota Twins in1969. Eventually, Bert made his major league debut at age 19 in 1970 and so did his curveball. Blyleven and the curveball will forever be connected. And also circles. But that came much later. Today we look at August 1; one day with 2 Blyleven milestones. First, August 1, 1985. Bert has bounced around the league a few times since the Twins offloaded him to the Rangers in 1976. In that time he threw a no-hitter, won a World Series, sat out 1982 season due to injury, and appeared in his 2nd All Star Game. He was on a Cleveland team that was going nowhe...

The following is a fictional account of a fictional character concerning a real item that I unearthed in a real store recently.  In between his debut on the big screen and he periodic returns, Mr. Vader acquired a math teaching licensure from an online correspondence school. I think it may have been Southern Dakota University since the Dark Lord of the Sith has been rather evasive when it came describing to his additional training. His LinkedIn just lists a SDU with coursework listed as "Maths."  Following that educational turn, Darth took a position as a Youngling Numeric Inquistator at the Dantooine Force Institute for two terms. Scant records exist of his time at the Institute because months following his dismissal, the school mysteriously disappeared from all charts. Literally obliterated from existance. One mech droid was uncovered years later and scanned. From that scan a few Vader records were recovered. The Institure was impressed with Darth's wielding of maths bu...

  A Marx Rock Island E7 passenger train derailed at the Spud Valley Show as it made the turn just beyong the Glendale Station crossing. No fatalies were reported.  Another October in Fargoland and so another Spud Valley Model and Toy Show arrived. Again it was held at the fairground in West Fargo and nearly every foot of space was filled with a model train layout or a vendor selling model train items or paraphenalia. A lot more layouts this year than ever. Even a substabtial N scale one. We don't get much of that up here. In addition to the train related items there was a substanial amount of vintage and/or collectible toys such as this Marx roadside rest service station.  I did not get much. A photo of some Burlington Northern engines in front of the Fargo Great Northern Depot, LifeLike train station details, and some Lionel parts. Then some vendor just gifted my daughter a battery operated train and track.   It looked to be a well attended show and the fairgro...

  BNSF 87 carries the name Skagit River and has been a track measurement car from at least since 2006. I found it in Fargo on cool late winter afternoon sitting on the mainline (former Northern Pacific) about a quarter mile from Dakota division HQ. These tracks parallel Main Ave through Fargo on the north side of the road. This car is former a Southern Pacific bi level commuter coach 3702 built in 1955 by Pullman. In 1985 this coach along with a few of its 'brothers' in the low 3700 series of bi-levels were sold to excursion line Transcisco Tours . 3702 was renamed Donner Lake for their Sierra 49er Express. Transcisco Tours did not do well financially.  In the early 1990s Burlington Northern grabbed up a handful of these bilevel cars from Transcisco to rebuild and put into their business fleet. As this point 3702 was renamed Skagit River, given the number  BNA 33  and painted in Burlington Northern business livery. It took on the aluminum look following the BNSF merg...

  Home Alone was a big hit in 1990. Actually it was a massive success. For nearly 2 decades it was the highest grossing live action comedy film. And success usually begets a sequel. Culkin and much of his movie family returned for more in 1992's Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. Lionel Large Scale also returned in a big way in the film and this time in its natural setting- a full layout at a toy store. There are 3 noticable toy train varieties in the Home Alone 2 scene in Duncan's Toy Chest- a Brio wooden train set, a large ride on/in train (which you almost miss), and Lionel Large Scale. The Brio gets a bulk of air time due to its placement on the set but the cameras does not dwell on it for long. That large ride on one may very well be a small amusement ride. It blends into the background and gets a few seconds. I have seen one in the guise of Thomas the Tank engine in a train show video someplace. However, for approximately 11 seconds, the Lionel trains are in the foreground ...

  Lionel Trains have appeared in numerous TV programs and movies. Usually these are of the 3 rail O scale variety. Let's look at an often overlooked Lionel product line that received some air time in classic movie. Having cornered the market for O-scale 3 rail trains (or at leasting thinking they did), in 1987 Lionel decided to step into the G-scale train business by creating a line of trains and accessories called Lionel Large Scale. They were not quite typical G-scale proportions like G-scale manufacturer LGB (which I think was something around 1:22.5). Lionel Large Scale was somewhere between 1:24 and 1:29. A bit fuzzy on size compared to prototypes but they still ran on the common G-guage 2 rail track using DC power.  Lionel never seemed to be too serious about the G-scale market. They put out a few new sets every other year and had a few accessories.  By the mid 1990s the line was floundering despite the addition of an Atlantic engine and GP-9. They even released an ...

During the last week, 2 turkeys decided to make my backyard their home. I only have chickens in my backyard so these fowl were invasive. I ended up chasing them away into another yard. Then they returned a few days later. Typically the turkey in the area are found down by the river- about 2 miles east. I had a turkey come through last summer. It strolled through and moved on quickly.  Then the other day I discovered that turkeys come in numerous types- although I am sure there are 2 species: wild turkey and ocellated turkey. These species are found in the western hemisphere. Europeans have classified some fowl as turkey coq or turkey hen since traders from the region around Türkiye  brought the birds to Europe. However, these definitely look like the birds we call turkeys in North America. Breeding may have brought out distinct traits in these birds. May you American enjoy your turkey this Thanksgiving. And if you are Canadian, I hope you had a pleasant Thanksgiving back in Oc...

  The story of the 353 goes back to 1971 according to the Rollag 50th year show book. It was purchased and then a little over 10 years later it was ready to move on Rollag's Steamer Hill. A lot of volunteer hours went into restoring the engine and laying out the track and grade on the show ground. The 353 is a former Soo Line and then ran in private service for a few years until it wound up at the Minnesota Transportation Museum. It is at that point some Rollag fellows found out about it and convinced the Rollag show that a full-size engine around the grounds would be a great attraction. They were right. This train to no-where circles the grounds and carries hundreds, maybe even thousands of guests, each year during Labor Day weekend.  On the grounds, the train passes 3 depots- the former Hickson, ND depot, the former Hitterdal, MN depot, and the Baker MN depot. There might also be the remains of the Buttzville, ND depot but I am not sure. The building that is used as a restro...

  Really? Has a brand of frozen pizza really shaken you? Look for yourself and be shaken err shook.  Pizza to be shaken by To cut to the chase, the top 2 pizzas this article ranked were Red Baron and Tombstone. Not really brands that I would think would stand out in their collection of 17 frozen pizzas. Certainly nothing that would leave me in that state of shook. But hey, it's pizza! I'd eat it even if it did not shake me to the core. Except maybe Totino's. That pizza is awful. Lileks would have a heyday with this one and how frequently they throw around the pie term to refer to the product. Seems a bit pretentious, too.  The reason I bring this up is there seems to be a trend in some of these click baity articles to make their discoveries appear to be earth shaking with headlines that include shook.  But, it makes us click. And then we find inflation also has infected the Internet as a lot of these are just intended to be billboards for ads while you peruse a somew...

 What is this a one post a year blog now?! No! At this rate it will be a 2 post a year blog. On to the sign. Grain Belt Premium was the beer of choice in the upper midwest. These signs were everywhere in small town beer joints across Minnesota and the Dakotas and even into Nebraska (Grain Belt had a brewering in Omaha at one time.) They might even still be there considering how slowly things change out in the boondocks. As a side note, there was a bar in my town called the Boondocks. I think they only served 3:2 beer. They did not have a sign like this.  I discovered this sign out at Bonanzaville in West Fargo on a cold weekend in December. The pioneer museum has numerous old buildings from the region on the property including a few bonanza farm houses. The Brass Rail was a saloon and hotel in Page, ND . It existed since ND became a state in 1889 but did not serve alcohol until prohibition was repealed in 1933. ND was a dry state until that time. Although, considering the larg...

  My search for this beer first led me to Canada. There was a Northern Breweries that had a presence up in Ontario. I could find nothing about their beers beside a label for an ale. They happened to be the first employee owned brewery in North America. However, after selling to an investment group that intended to revive the brand, Northern Breweries went bankrupt somewhere around 2006 or 2007. However, this Northern Breweries was a dead end for this particular label. After a little more digging, I found the Northern Brewing Company of Superior, Wisconsin. This is the brewer that produced Northern Beer amongst other labels. Northern had been around since 1890 when it was the Klinkert Brewing Company. Through some reorganization in the years following, Klinkert became Rueping and finally Northern. It was quite the prosperous operation in Superior and NW Wisconsin. They even distributed some batches to Milwaukee. Unfortunately, their fortune would begin to diminish when a bad batch...

Spud Valley returned this year. Well, it never left during the troubling times. When October rolls around the Red River Valley- the Spud Valley show appears unlike the Great Pumpkin. This year's edition (the 44th) had a big change. It was held at the fairgrounds in West Fargo instead the the Delta Hotel in Fargo. Chatter around the show was Delta upped the rental fee. No confirmation on that but these days it would not be uncommon. The building at the Fairgrounds seemed up to the challenge to host. To me it seems about the same size as the hotel conference room. This year's show seemed heavy on diecast, toys, and traditional plastic models. Lots of toy tractors. A few more railroad collectibles than usual. There were trains but mostly outside my interested gauges or operating prerogative. A little less Lionel and O. A sliver of G. Some N and HO.  My interest in O gauge has changed- I am only looking for items I will immediately use on the layout like figures or line side shacks...

I see these scenic Schmidt Beer cans so often but I do not think I have ever written about them. They look good afor me harken back to days of hunting and fishing in the North Woods someplace while listening to a Vikings or Twins game on the radio. Schmidt Scenic Cans from G. Heileman era As it goes with collecting not all of them are that collectible. The early flat top cans that you needed to use an opener on command the most interest. The cans I have pictured abovecome from the G. Heileman ownership time and thus  are not very valuable. One collector even said he has recycled quite a few of them.  This style of Schmidt can were first produced when it was still Jacob Schmidt Brewing (early 1950s.) Artist  Les Kouba produced the art on these early cans.  After 1954 the brewer changed hands a few times until Rainer was producing the beer in the early 90s and this type of can were still being produced. As the the decade progressed the label seems to have gone dormant...

I found some additional photos of the BNSF 1885, a SD40-2 with a snoot nose that plies the yard in Fargo and occassional pulls a train west and visits Northtown Yard. That distinctive snoot and blueboonet  freightbonnet* Santa Fe scheme makes it easy to spot. I think I took these from Great Northern Drive near the throat of the yard.  Formerly SF 5121 and then BNSF 6805 after the merge. Built in November  1979 with builder number  786223-7. On the Santa Fe this engine saw time out west in California then made its way to the Midwest in the early 2000s and then to Minnesota and North Dakota around 2010. Sometime between spring 2019 and Fall of 2021, the BNSF 1885 was repainted in what looks like the H4 scheme (see here  BNSF 1885 in Oct 2021 ). Looks like they added an air conditioning unit or two too. From the angle of the photo I cannot tell if they reduced the nose size as well. *It came to my attention that bluebonnet was a color scheme only on passenger engin...

  Lionel's foray in the G-Scale realm between late 80s to early 90s, produced a few buildings. In fact 4 buildings were produced and they were near duplicates of kits that were produced for the O scale line. These are really fine looking models and the difference between them and their O scale counterparts is they are wood kits and include a bit more details including some brass on the doors of the engine house and shingles and window glazing, . The watchmen's shanty in O did include a figure and a dog  but all the O scale kits were plastic. I would enjoy assembling one of these kits. Like their O scale little brothers, these are sadly out of production and have been so for a long time. They occasional show up on Ebay and I suspect you may find them in some old stock at a hobby shop that has not sold off its old Lionel dead stock. Scale Model Supply in St. Paul, MN comes to mind but I am sure there are others disbursed across America. I actually have 3 of the O-scale versions....

My Lionel Large Scale Gold Rush Special on display  I found very little about Lionel's Large Scale products online so I decided to post something. In the late 1980s Lionel decided to produce a very small selection of 'G' scale trains. Lionel marketed them as Lionel Large Scale. From what I can tell from online sources, this Lionel scale was more akin to the size of the Lionel's standard gauge trains from the pre-war era and a bit smaller than the typical G trains from makers like LGB, Bachmann, or Piko. G is a sort of a catch all for those big trains you typically see in outdoor layouts- the scale can range anywhere between 1:13 up to 1:32.  The 1:32 scale is where standard gauge falls. They seem to also have been rereleasing standard gauge trains under the Lionel Classics moniker in the early Kughn era. MTH had produced standard scale trains under the Lionel brand between 2009 and 2019 and  G scale under the Rail King 1 Gauge  From reports I have seen online, L...

 Mid-October means another Spud Valley Hobby Show.  Trains, toy tractors, die cast cars and assorted modeling items are offered for sale. This year the model airplanes did not make an appearance. And of course a few tables of railroad memorabilia. Notably a few tables with railroad lanterns- very popular but on the high end for an antique that can be well worn. A good flea market and display show. I found a few items worth buying- a Lionel GP-38 for repairing, 2 Lionel automatic switches, N-scale interurban, a box of wires and electrical items for layout. Here is the GP-38. It was missing a pilot, some screws, and needed a new coupler with a spring. The parts was slightly difficult to find- although it is amazing how much some vendors charge for such small parts. The challenge was finding a good deal. Shipping charges are crazy for parts that only weigh a few ounces. The engine runs very good.  Model stationary steam engines are pretty rare at shows. I saw one last y...