The Royce Files

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...

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...

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 ...

It being Model Railroad Month , I should write about this interest of mine. It was only in the last two years that I have come to revisit this hobby from my past. As a child I got into model railroading with an HO train set I got for Christmas. It was a special Campbell's Soup edition set made by Life-Like. Eventually a train table was built, more track, switches, and a city load of buildings were acquired. I still own it, but it has not been run for years. It was sort of an incomplete set up. I was never any good at scenic. I just liked to run the trains. I digress. A few years ago I decided to revisit the model train hobby but this time in O scale. Which now brings us to this entry about the Granite City Train Show . Out in the Go there is very little to choose from for model railroading supplies. There is one shop that carries a bit of train stuff. There used to be another but it closed up about a decade ago. I actually attend church in one of the shop's previous loc...