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

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, Lionel La

 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 year. Even more chal

 As the cases increased in the Dakota-land (and Minnesota too) the previous Fall, one annual train event did not want to fade away. The Spud Valley Model Show went on as scheduled in October 2020 with the common public wardrobe amendment. I arrived early and the place was hopping despite the additional face coverings. Many of the same vendors displayed their model trains and hobby wares with one addition from the Twin Cities. Mass gatherings like model train shows in Minnesota pretty much got the kibash, so this one in Fargo was of particular interest to modelers and train enthusiasts. I think it may have been the only show to go on in the 5 state region (ND,MN,SD,IA,WI) since February 2020. A lot of the shows cancelled like Granite City down in St. Cloud, that Upper Midwest show at Century College in the Twin Cities, and the Trains at Christmas Show in Sioux Falls. So what did I see? Let's take a look. A Marx set. Seems like a double switcher set. K-line acquired the molding of th

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

Welcome to 2019- albeit we are about at the midpoint of this year. The Fargo Marathon came and wet- really wet weekend. I never got close to the course. But between the last post and now I have visited 2 editions of the Granite City Train show down in St. Cloud and each of my older kids got to go to one. I cannot recall much about the fall 2018 show except my son was given a free battery train set and I picked up a Santa gandy dancer. In spring I finally found a Lionel Train Orders Depot but then I lost a bag with a N scale car, a few trees, and a O scale shack. I also bought another Western Fruit Express reefer. 

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 Water Tower

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

In the Upper Midwest and a few other outlying places the mention of Menards summons up a banjo ditty with lyric: "Save big money, you save big money, when you shop Menards." The big box home improvement retailer and its spokesperson Ray are responsible for etching those words into my mind and others. Their common sales approach is giving out rebates in the form of merchandise credit checks usable only at their stores. Clever way to induce cyclic patterns of shopping at Menards. And for the last decade or so, most of their outlets have added food stuffs, clothes, books, and a few electronics. Every Christmas they would also have a some Lionel train sets including a Menard's only set. Then, back just a few years ago (perhaps 2011 or 2012) they began to release their own exclusive line of O scale train freight cars. First it started with a trickle of flat cars with Menard loads: a Menards trailer, a Menards truck, a Menards racecar. They followed it up with flat cars w

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

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

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

The  Northern Trackers have a great spot in Crosslake, MN that features 3 scales of model trains in addition to a 1/2" scale model of the the William Crooks, Minnesota's first locomotive. I try to visit whenever I am passing through the area. The Crooks model sits outside their building near a G scale layout. Inside there is an expansive HO layout that models the railroad activity of the northern Minnesota from the early 1900s. Above there is a G scale loop. In another room there is an O-scale 3 rail layout with some interactive accessories. The real William Crooks locomotive sits in the Lake Superior Railroad Museum . It formally had been on display at the St. Paul Union Depot but since 1972 has been in the Duluth museum beside another venerable engine, The Minnetonka. An excellent article on the Saga of the William Crooks . As for the person, William Crooks - he was the chief engineer for the railroad which the locomotive belonged- St Paul and Pacific. He was a Colone

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

Above we have another mystery freight car. This one took me a while to obtain due to an Ebay seller messing up shipping for over a month. What we have here is a fenced flat car. At first glance you may think- hey this is that horse car from one the Lionel General outfit or the later  Lionel Jesse James outfit . But no, this car is not from either of those. The really strange thing about this car is that it has "fake trucks." Basically what you are seeing in the photo is a plastic mask in the shape of trucks a la Marx Trains. There are only 2 axles on this unit and if it were not for the underside Lionel stamp I would think this came from Marx. I never thought Lionel would drop quality this far for a car- but they did and especially during the period they were owned by General Mills henceforth known as the MPC era. A sharp contrast to the ever collectible and solid Post War era. So from what outfit did this flat car come? The Lionel Workin' On the Railroad Logging

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 automatically with an operati

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 Post War

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 plenty of low cost yet durable pieces produced.