robert.admin – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

June 21, 2026

OpsLog – TBL – 6/20/2026

o the Tuscarora Branch Lines was designed as a one-man show that eventually expanded to five positions (scheduled engineer, coal extra engineer, leverman, station operator and dispatcher) and even seven (two brakemen). It’s flexible. Was thinking of a run recently and Zeus (young man-about-town college guy) popped the thought of having a session this weekend. We set up for the title-mentioned-date, high noon. I also had one maybe and one suspected crew, so I prepped for four (even five) because sometimes people just show up. Turns out the maybes were maybe-nots and I got a call from Zeus at 12:05 […]

June 21, 2026

Cosmic Banditos (Review)

ecommended this book to a friend, based on my fond memories of it. He said he sounded interested. That made me interested. I hadn’t read it for 40 years (since it came out). Did I even still have my old copy? After all, there was the cull I’d done when I had to move everything out to a pod and back in the blazing sun (termite treatment in the house). Happily, I found it. And since I wasn’t reading anything, I put it on the top of my list. So Cosmic Banditos is a book that explores the drug trade, South American […]

June 15, 2026

OpsLog – WAZU – 6/14/2026

ps are never what I think they are going to be. Usually they are cluster-fugs. Either you have a wonderful layout but a crew of newbies (or casuals) and the session flops because of them. Or our club, when a wide spread of skills, a large yet elderly layout, and with just everyone doing everything (with guests wandering about, sometimes stealing from us) it can be chaotic. Even my small Tuscarora can be an effort, like if one guy comes and wants to clown about. They are never the small number of dedicated, experienced and studious crews that I imagine quiet […]

June 14, 2026

OpsLog – TBL – 06/13/2026

ent over to the club on a quiet Saturday and met up with Pete and Jim P. They did whatever and I ran a quiet session of Tuscarora, solo. I’d just started and realized I’d wished I’d brought my spare handheld throttle so that I could switch over to the other side to run the Drill move. As it stood (pun intended), every back up and drop move required me to climb out of my chair and fuss with my readers, trying to uncouple a car. This was shaping up to be a drag when the unthinkable happened – After […]

June 14, 2026

The Faith of Beasts (Review)

he second book of the Captive’s War Trilogy now extends our understanding of what is going on across the universe in a war that defies belief in scale and technology .The first book, The Mercy of Gods, dealt with a small colony lost (supposedly and hinted at) from The Expanse universe. There, the best of a world are carted off to an alien home world to do labwork and advancements or face being culled. Now, the team that survived has been scattered. With what we learned from the short story Livesuit, about the long-dead alien race from which all unbelievable […]

June 7, 2026

OpsLog – WBRR – 6/6/2026

got a chance to test out my new eyeballs, both for seeing through and for the ensuing tears trickling down my trembling cheeks. Fun session in that chaotic way that the Western Bay runs, fun but frantic. I was part of a group of “northerners” who went down there – Terry B, John L, Jack F and Jim M. I’d be dispatching and Jim was my western Station Agent – Al would be eastern. Jim and I know how this goes and have worked it in the past. Al just beats the shit out of me (to be explained). Started […]

May 29, 2026

OpsLog – LM&O – 5/27/2026

n the Tuscarora, my micro-layout, you can climb aboard the cab of an eastbound coal train. You’ll rattle out of Westly, cross Tenmile Creek, enter the Tuscarora interlocking plant, whistle at the signpost, look for orders at the tower, cross Morgan Street, loop through the long curve between Inner and Outer industrials, clear town and enter Easton. That’s your run. You will probably pass a freight train in Tuscarora, same engine, same consist (perhaps progressively shorter) each time. The run takes maybe 30 seconds. On the Lehigh, Monongahela and Ohio, you’ll board a coal train at Carbon Hill. After doing […]

May 24, 2026

OpsLog – LM&O (Saturday Session) – 5/23/2026

ell, it was a week full of sucking, specifically inlaws sucking cash and me siphoning water from a blown washing machine (which will also suck cash). And eyeball surgery, which made my vision a bit “off”, which sucks, too. And then there was the sucky second-guessing conversation about when, specifically, in the PM this session would take place. So I wasn’t sure if I was going to come or just sit at home and try to read anime subtitles. But I got three offers for rides out (since my driving kinda sucks right now, too) and accepted Terry B’s gracious […]

May 24, 2026

The Shattered Skies (Review)

his is the second in the series following The Cruel Stars, by John Birmingham (and make sure you follow this link for the details – I have another book of that name in my library, one of the Ark Royal books). Yeah, so anyway, this is a middling book in a set so most of the action (while interesting and fun) just pretty much works through its plots. We have the aging Scottish Admiral (who is something of a Highlander, being 700 years old) and his sarcastic floating super computer. And the Captain of the Defiant, pretty much the last ship facing the […]

May 18, 2026

OpsLog – WAZU – 5/17/2026 (Guest Blog)

his time, I’m letting the owner blog his own piece for his own layout. Really, it was a nice write-up and I didn’t have anything to go with (other than being the “bad cop” in the debrief when everyone was blowing sunshine up Doc’s ass). But I liked it, asked him, and he said I could quote him. So, here’s what Doc had to say. Thanks to the Krewe of WAZU for making our little re-boot a fun and enjoyable event. Special Thanks goes to “Shoeless” Bob for making the sacrifice to work his shift even though he was dealing […]