robert.admin – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

April 19, 2026

OpsLog – TBL – 4/18/2026

ince we had Deland behind us and a spare weekend, and Zeus was hammering me for a Tusk Coast session, we set up for a Saturday and made it a clubhouse open house for general members. Some did show up but my attention was locked on my Tuscarora. It was a busy summer day on our railroading epic. Of course, Zeus couldn’t be found the day before an I had no confirmation of what he’d bring for his ACL version of my railroad so I printed up Pennsy switchlists and set up with that in mind. We started with […]

April 19, 2026

Gravity Lost (Review)

magine my delight when after enjoying the first book by this new author (L.M. Sagas), Cascade Failure, my friend told me a second novel just came out (This one!). Rushed right down to the bookstore and picked up a copy hot off the shelf! So again, we’re focused on the crew of the Ambit, a no-account dime-a-dozen rockhopper (seemingly unarmed) and its crew of three – Saint, Dash and their AI captain Eoan (with its “”Them/Their” pronoun). And they are just minding their business, back to dirty Guild jobs (in this case, doing a prisoner transfer for badass terrorist Drestyn) when […]

April 12, 2026

ShowLog – Deland – 4/11/2026

nother train show way up in Deland, and all you can say, it’s not getting any closer, or later in the morning. We decided to switch drivers going in, if only to throw off the KGB (seriously, over-scheduling difficulties, but it worked out fine). John W was our set-up boss and we set up with a solid crew in sharp time. We did have problems with a full booster (remember what Steve told you about consisting? This is what it looks like. We’re going to have to work with Kyle to clear it). And there was Mike with a dead […]

April 5, 2026

Hornet Squadron (Review)

ound this book on my dad’s old Kindle, good for me since I had jury duty in a few day’s time and this would be more compact than a 1980’s paperback (most would fit in your back pocket). So it worked out well for me. So, Hornet Squadron is the usual Derek Robinson fare; a squadron made up of arch-types and fuckups that is muddling through the worst of it – in this case, World War One. It’s an interesting link-up book, since Hornet Squadron was the name of the squadron in Piece of Cake, and Woolley, the horrific squadron CO […]

March 30, 2026

Opslog – Sarntalbahn – 3/29/2026

un little hang-out with Kyle S today at the club – he invited me in for a test-running/conceptional-thinking of his new Sarntalbahn line, a layout constructed largely of T-Trak (and kinda T-Trak) modules. So the way it is organized – the larger station, Sarntalbahn, is on one side, and on the other, Wilnau. Sarntalbahn is a larger rail yard, all turnouts manual (presumably they have the personnel for that) whereas Wilnau is a line-station, a small passenger building with a couple of light industries. And Wilnau is going to be CTC controlled (Kyle had a working interlocking/CTC board for it […]

March 29, 2026

Cascade Failure (Review)

oddamn, but I loved this book. We start with a down-on-his luck hero who is wandering a spaceport, scruffy, worlds-worn, looking for any sort of ship work if only to get passage to move along. A ship opens up for him. He goes in, calling “Hello…. Hello?” and suddenly the door slams shut and an AI bot starts talking to him. Frightened, scared, he tries to get the lock open and suddenly it does, to reveal the crew of the Ambit, a merc-looking guy and a tufnut female engineer. But the merc the drifter knows and freaks, trying to make a […]

March 28, 2026

OpsLog – YVRR – 3/26/2026

fter the complete railroad spin-cycle from last night, I rode out to Cocoa to run on Jack Ferguson’s Yosemite Valley Railroad. And this was just what I needed – easy going sequential ops with some interesting switching and no screaming operators or scribbled warrants. Just what the railroad surgeon ordered. Anyway, I got to run the yard first thing while new-comer Mark D ran our first massive train in. Broke it up nicely in the yard – good thing it was semi-blocked and went apart easily. Once I got the first train done, I sent the John out with it. And […]

March 27, 2026

OpsLog – LM&O – 3/25/2026

o I thought it would be a breeze session. Zack and I were going to joint-dispatch (him west subdivision, me east). Seriously, I kinda felt that it was like two master pianists sharing the same bench, skillfully weaving a beautiful melody on a single piano. In reality, it was like we were at the same piano, sharing the same bench, and it was rolled it out of the music hall and tipped down the long fight of steps and into the street. Crash, sprang, bong, bewang! Didn’t go so well. Well, no, it went as well as it could. We […]

March 22, 2026

OpsLog – LM&O (Saturday Night Special) – 3/21/2026

kay, we have all the pre-warrants out. Clocks are set. Have a conductor assigned to the newbie. The guest who was wandering around has left (does anyone read the door sign – private event, Jack). Radio established with BETH Tower and confrimed with the room. Every train that needs to move has been signed up for. Prebrief was nice and quick. Ready to go. And the clock strikes… 00:A6? What? Fuddled with it while confirming 223 entering the interlocking district and 231 was out the door. Tried to change it but couldn’t get a “real” time on it. Turned it […]

March 17, 2026

MeetLog – Vero Beach – 3/16/2026

he Eastern Model Railroad Meet (ironic since, recently, the eastern division of the sunshine region of the NMRA was recently abolished) was held today, way way down in Vero Beach today. Since two N-Trakers were asked to come down and speak (me, on TT&TO, and Reverend Jim, because I badgered him into speaking last minute on T-Trak because “Weren’t you a public speaker?” works really well. We also had Joel Morse (“Layout planning for operations”) and Host Chip Pecere (“Designing your layout before construction”). Interesting, two other people cancelled out of the one Jim covered (“Introduction to T-Trak Modelling”) (Including no-show […]