The Royce Files

  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....

 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...

Chicago is the railroad crossroads of America. All the class I roads have a presence in Chicago and  its suburbs. I lodged near a large yard for the Belt Railway of Chicago , a terminal road that does a lot of the switching and interchange for the other railroads. It was loud and I was over a half a mile away. Further from my lodging were a handful of hobby shops that specialize in model trains. I scouted out these shops online to see which one would be closest. I found one- Golden Spike Train Shop- that would be close to the hotel where I would be staying. Unfortunately, I came to find out it had closed up a few years earlier. I looked further and realized I would need use public transit to get to the others. I attempted to Uber to one but no Uber wanted to pick me up. I was pretty flustered since I was seeing Uber drivers all over the area. I gave up and decided to schedule one in the morning. It got cancelled. Finally I decided to bus it out to Berwyn's. I only had a small wi...

For 40 years, the Spud Valley Show has been the go to event for model train and other hobby enthusiasts to gather in Fargo. Over the years plenty of hobby shops have come and gone. In 1985 there were 2 Lionel service centers in Moorhead, MN! Still, the annual show brings out a whole bunch of hobbyists to buy and sell not only model railroad items but model airplanes, diecast cars, model tractors, plastic models, railroad antiques, and vintage toys. Nobody sell vintage toys from the 1970s or 80s yet. This year I went early and was amazed at the size of the crowd. It was actually difficult to get around the room. I also landed one of my best buys ever the Marx Bubbling Water Tower in excellent condition. I had been looking for it for a while and got for $10. After Marx sold the dies, K-line produced this water tower up until perhaps 2009. I also decided to get a fire truck to put on the layout. It is a well detailed 1/43 diecast and plastic model.    Marx Bubbling Wa...

240 miles separates where I am at and the Twin Cities. Almost the same amount separates my home base and Winnipeg. For 70 less miles and reduce my drive time by 1.5 hours, I can get to St. Cloud, the Granite City. Once again I spent some time at the Granite City Train Show a few weeks ago. This train show has been going on for a while- maybe like 10 years- and it has been my go to show for buying model trains and railroad related items. Last spring they moved the show from the Armory to the River's Edge Convention Center in downtown St. Cloud. The convention center allowed much more space and a lot more parking. This spring the show was just a bit sparse. I noted quite a few vendors were not present. I overheard amongst the chatter that the Newport Club was having one of their sales the same day down in Woodbury. I have written about that one and attended last year. Woodbury is a large draw and Twin Cities based vendors may find it more attractive than lugging their wares up ...

I acquired an assembled version of the Lionel lumber shed structure last year and blogged about it here . It is still ridiculous how much these are going for on the market. Do not get me wrong, it is a good model, but shelling out $20 - $30 dollars for one is extravagant. It just does not have much collectible value. Since it gets attached to the Lionel name some sellers assume it is something akin to precious metal. So it is ideal to find these outside the typical Lionel searches. I would think that if the Lionel name were not attached this would be just another mass produced plastic structure. While at the October Fargo Toy and Train show I found the lumber shed in a modified form. I am not entirely sure what scale the alteration was intended- I am guessing N since most of the other items around it were for N. It certainly is a bit of a scale stretch to plausibly utilize the structure in the smaller scales. The work bench and the storage bin would have to be removed to...

It being National Model Railroad Month , I am going to post some images of my O gauge 3 rail layout. This layout  has been around for 4 years. It has been in this particular format for about 3 years. Previously I just ran trains on floor.  I am modeling a fictional area along the Great Northern Railway in northern Minnesota. A mix of vintage and new equipment make up my collection from many companies. Structures are mostly from Lionel and Bachmann Plasticville. I have a few Post-War Lionel pieces thanks to my father and good finds at shows. I am an operator so I do not buy to keep items on the shelf or in boxes. I have not found time to scenic the layout- but that is mostly because I do not think I have the skills. Plus, I have not come up with a track layout I like. Right now it is just track around the table. See how many items you can recognize in the photos. Small station and saw mill Town area with larger station and yard. Another angle of the s...

In an earlier post I wrote about the a freight platform structure that Lionel produced. Today I will look at a coaling station I re-habbed after finding it in pieces at a train show.  This coaling station comes from another structure kit that Lionel put out originally during the MPC period (1970-mid 80s.) Those who bought Lionel in 1970 appear to have been hesitant about re-issuing some of the classic coal handling accessories from the post-war period. It was probably a money thing. Plastic kits are much more inexpensive. The coaling station here is a behemoth although not as large as the grain elevator that was released during the same period. There is talk on some O gauge boards that the earliest releases of this structure also had some rudimentary manual coal loading action.  Trains can pass underneath the one side of the building and perhaps simulate coal loading from a large mine operation.  Car can go underneath elevated side Some assemble requir...

Lionel log dump car with the Switch Tower in background I wanted to have some action on my railway besides just going in circles. Lionel makes quite a few operational cars. I featured the milk reefer a few weeks. I doubt I will ever get that one to work. It is a long range plan. So I found this Northern Pacific log dump car from 1984 on e-bay in practically new condition. Even came with the box for less than $30. I was planning on getting a version of this car at one of the local antique shops for less than $20. However, that one was broken. The log dump car basically holds a few logs and at the desired point- notably the place where the collection tray sits and the automated track piece sits- dumps the logs. Lionel has made these types of cars since the post-war period . Earlier versions were all metal. Its close relatives are the coal dump car and the helium tank dump car. These cars can be operated manually with the manual uncoupler thingie and ...

an explosive box car I acquired this green box car in a train lot I purchased on E-bay. It seems to be an unlisted car as I can find no information whatsoever about an Acme Explosives box car produced by Lionel. So we've got a mystery on our hands again. Let's examine the car. It is an all plastic affair. Kind of short and small compared to the 6400 series of boxcars from Post War. Everything barring the axel is plastic. Stickers for nameplates and graphics. No build date. No moving doors. No doubt this is a cheap car which possibly came in a set during the MPC era. The only indication this is a Lionel product is raised stamped lettering on the coupler sider "Lionel 9000 Series." This is our first bit of evidence to work. And nothing comes of it on the Net. However the mold of this car certainly resembles quite a few catalogued cars. The Toys R Us 9045 and the Hershey's 9041 must share the same mold. It also appears to be a close relative of the Po...

Seeking out old Lionel trains (and cars) has become a habit of mine recently. I decided to get started back after Christmas when I realized that there are too few people running Lionel or Marx or other O gauge electric trains. In fact, it almost seems like the hobby has been in decline since the 1980s. So I decided to keep this tradition alive somewhat. However, it often appears that though there is plenty of old working model trains out there- the collectors have created a somewhat inflated value of these trains and accessories. It just makes the hobby more exclusive because toy trains have become equated with gold- notwithstanding the trains and accessories made of gold, if there are any. So what I often see is anything with a Lionel on it automatically becomes something of value even if it is come or unexceptionally built. The trains of the Post-WWII period (and those before) were exceptionally made for the most part. But there was ple...

Since I've moved into a house I have been able to enjoy an old hobby-model railroad. Quite a few of my pics of trains and scenery have shown up on Instagram or Facebook. The hobby seems like it is dying out to an extent- or has the potential to flicker out of popularity. I see fewer and fewer trains at the stores these days and much less a the hobby shops out this way. RC seems to be the hobby of choice. To find some supplies I need to head down to the Twin Cities and make a stop through Scale Model Supply to get what I need. Used to be a few stores that sold trains in the 'Go. In fact one of them used to be located where my church meets. Google pages say there is one- but on the map it is a house . There is an annual train show in October. I digress. Well, I had HO trains growing up. But just got into O scale this year, mostly because the size would be good for kids and my dad had a collection of Lionel trains. But before I set up to borrow my Dad's tr...