robert.admin – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

August 16, 2026

Jumper (Review)

read this when it hit the shelves in the early nineties and remembered loving it. Even gave my copy to my sister-in-law to read (and, evidently, misplaced in Horder’s Hell). Alas. So, Jumper is about a young boy whose father is extremely abusive. Having chased off his mother (more like her fleeing for her life), his father turns his rage on the boy, often beating him with a belt with a rodeo buckle on it. And one night, because he’s drunk, hates himself, hates his life, for whatever reason, he turns his rage (and belt) on his son again. David […]

August 14, 2026

OpsLog – YVRR – 8/13/2026

‘ve imagined walking down modeled South Morgan Street, waving to drunk George in the guard shack, to Betty who is having her smoke at the tower door. I pass the cross bucks standing over the grade crossing, past Jacob’s on the right (the smell of fuel hanging heavy in the Appalachian air) and the boarded-up passenger depot on the left. Another hundred yards down this road will bring me to the main drag of Tuscarora, quaint in its 1962 time frame, not a corporate logo to be seen. Yeah, this is the place I imagined and modeled. So Jack’s reworked […]

August 9, 2026

OpsLog – TBL (Black Diamonds) – 8/8/2026

very adventure needs tension. Not an evil opponent, simply tension. You know, man vs. nature, man vs. self, man vs. Model Railroading. My tension was Turnout 1, just below the Westly Mine, which was sticking. Noticed it at the end of the last session. At first, it wasn’t quite normalizing. Then, after tossing it back and forth manually a few times, it wasn’t resetting in either direction. My stomach knotted. I decided to just finish the session and then deal with it on the following Saturday, when there would be time and tools for the job. When I tried to […]

August 9, 2026

The Last Watch (Review)

new series by (I guess) our new author J.S. Dewes, a tale of betrayal and terror on the literal edge of the universe. So rich boy Cavalon, a privileged brat who annoyed his all-powerful granddad in a very rebellions manner, gets “French Foreign Legioned” to the Argus, a decommissioned battleship now serving as a gutted watchpost, eyes on the “frontier”, supposedly watching for the return of an alien horror that all but annihilated us in two wars. Of course, he’s a rich boy in a ship full of angry troops who have all been sent to this outpost in the literal […]

August 2, 2026

OpsLog – TBL – 8/1/2026

o I had an oddly empty weekend and thought maybe I’d run the Tuscarora Branch Line through its paces. For this, I decided to do a number of things. 1. I’d run as many extra features as I could (i.e. deadhead cars and midnight dropoffs). 2. I’d run cars from my TBL collection that I usually don’t run. 3. I’d run the leverman position fully, including a station log and packets, to be issued as if we had a dispatcher. But then, of course, my plans changed. 4. Smiling Jack asked if he could run the TBL. Anyway, sure, I have […]

August 2, 2026

Destroyermen 16 – Fleet of Ghosts (Review)

his all began when my siblings press-ganged me into driving up to take care of my mom for three days. Of course, it’s a full (and taxing) drive each way, so that’s five days. And since there may be delays in my relief, that’s six. So no big deal. Since I’d be driving alone (and since rental cars no longer have CD players) I could not borrow from the library and was sorta stuck, that is, until my pal Jesse bought me a Fire so I could get Audible books. I’ve already reviewed my “test” book, The Last Days of New […]

July 30, 2026

OpsLog – LM&O – 7/29/2026

t was the best of times. But it really was the worst of times. A lot more. So in the last month, I’d had to drive 2000 miles to sit with my mother, who forgets my name. And then there is my sister-in -law, bunked in exclusive Westminster for $6000 a month, yet she still warms my life with nocturnal trips to the emergency room and a constant stream of complaints. She comes with her Halloween House of Hording which we are trying to deal with, what with its trench-warfare hallway clutter, its rubbish-sealed rooms, its condemned wiring and its […]

July 27, 2026

OpsLog – WAZU – 7/26/2026

hey used to say that there are a thousand stories in the naked city. I’d respond by saying – first – put some pants on. I don’t want to see that. And second – that it’s very true for a model railroad op sessions. We’re basically in four places (dispatcher office, Portland and Spokane staging room, remote operations room, and the main layout room). So, even though most of us are in one place (with flock camera coverage across the entire area), it seems that we don’t know WTF is going on. I got called for crew service, basically two […]

July 26, 2026

Lost Cat (Review)

ubtitled as “A true story of Love, Desperation and GPS Technology”, this was an interesting bio from a young woman (Caroline Paul) who starts her recounting with smashing her ultralight and pulping her leg (okay, THAT caught my attention). Finally leaving the hospital, she returns home to her two cats (Fibby and Tibby). So she’s confined with her injury, somewhat smacked out on drugs, depressed, whiny, all those recovery things. And that’s when TIbby goes missing. Weeks pass. Hobbling around the immediate area, calling Tibby’s name, aided by her good friend (and illustrator) Wendy MacNaughton, she starts her quest. Fearful […]

July 23, 2026

OpsLog – LM&O – 7/22/2026

ince nobody in the club watches old black&white moves from the 1940s, let me describe the trope. Generally it involves a collection of optimistic young men and women who need to raise money for their university, town or charity. “Hey, I know! Let’s put on a show!” In this age before montages, most of the movie is them getting ready, making the sets, practicing their lines, funny little bits. And then, opening night. Their big chance! All the players line up and peek through the curtains into the theater’s seating. Nothing but empty seats. “Oh no! But what about our […]