The Royce Files

 2020 certainly will certainly pass with no one grieving its' departure. What felt like nearly a whole decade of ordeals and intrigue and unrest, I will gladly place that volume on the backside of the bookcase never to be opened again. One hopes 2021 will not be the sequel although in some respects it could be and perhaps for years to come. The impact was a large meteorite in the groin. Methinks I rambled on too much. It is was it is. In this new covidian era, you better watch out and you better not cry, 'cause the Santa drones are coming to town. And man are they ticked!    This is quite honestly the pandemic Santa we needed- harmless and antiseptic. That is unless you believe this is the ticked off Santa drone. Then you can just stay home. Coal for you.  On to other items. Namely signs of beer. A mid-century clock promoting the beer of choice of your fathers and grandfathers if they lived up in Minnesota or the Dakotas. As a child I only recall 3 brands of bee...

Last year's family fall tour included part of Minnesota's Iron Range. There are 4 distinct ranges in the state-Cuyuna, Mesabi, Vermillion, and Gunflint. They extend from Crosby, just east of Brainerd, to the tip of the Arrowhead of NE Minnesota. The Gunflint actually continues into Canada. I have been to all four. There a handful of museums dotted throughout the region. Only the Mesabi range has any active mines. In Mountain Iron, there is a small park near a former pit mine. According to the interwebs , iron ore was first discovered near the park. In the park there is a display of some old mining equipment. Under a canopy sits an old switch engine that is marked for the Oliver Iron Mining Company. You can actually climb up on it and go into the cab. Some local youths were occupying the cab so we just climbed around the boiler.  It is a Baldwin 0-8-0 built in 1910 that originally served the Duluth, Missabe, and Northern Railroad. Oliver Iron Mining Company acquired the engine i...

Hustle Muscle GN 400 Wow. I cannot believe it has been over a year since the last post. And double wow, what a year it has been and now continues to be -except for all the masks. But now for the trains. Last year Fargo hosted the Great Northern Historical Society's annual convention. The organization brought their prized asset Hustle Muscle GN 400, the first SD45 produced by EMD. Some major maintenance was completed on the historic SD45 in February 2019. From what I recall it needed a new diesel engine. I believe it was thought Hustle Muscle might have been out of service for quite some time. Then BNSF stepped up with some shop help to get the engine back in service. Like many of the 1st and 2nd generation diesels, Hustle Muscle's cab is pretty spartan:a control panel, brake and a throttle. Yes there is also a horn and a seat. I don't recall seeing the bathroom. But then there is also this control panel on the rear of the cab. Rear Control Panel in Hustle ...

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...

As winter melts away the taste for hot dogs grows. I found myself in Chicago at the end of May for business. Hours after landing I was in pursuit of a delightfully delicious dog from one of Chicago's famous stands (at least those accessible by public transit.) But in doing so, I kind of got lost downtown trying to find the Elevated and then I got off at the wrong stop. It pays to do deeper research when getting on the L train. Apparently on the line I took, it had stations on the same road but about 3 miles apart because the route is U-shaped. I spent a lot of time walking and running to get to The Red Hot Ranch  to order a double dog. Fortunately the right "L" station was a few blocks away and I returned to downtown. Red Hot Ranch on Western On my way back to the hotel I spied Devil Dawgs . Actually I knew it was there before I had just wanted to try something outside of the Loop first. The Ranch really is a small stand. Some would consider it a hole in the wall...

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 Wa...