robert.admin – Page 14 – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

March 24, 2025

OpsLog – WAZU – 3/23/2025

came into this session with determination. The day before we’d operated over at the Virginia Southwestern. Some of the operators were new, some timid, and some.. well, “some”. At one point we had four L&N trains in the CTC-controlled shared trackage, and two more snippy Southern trains trying to get through. Since I controlled the turnouts from the panel, I set up a pretty neat lap siding pass for two long coal trains to get around Kyle’s mine shifter. But the two crews were timid – even with warrants all the way to Atlanta staging, even with all turnouts set, […]

March 23, 2025

OpsLog – L&N – 3/22/2025

t was such a nice morning. Came out of the house as the sun broke over the trees, breath steaming in the cold as I made my way to the car. Swung by the coffee shop to pick up a cup. Dropped by Zach’s place to mailbag him for the ride out – an informal meeting of the ONT Operations Committee. Happy to say while we rode out, we might have cracked the steel mill output dilemma, as well as tidying up the freight flow across our club’s bridge route. Time for a quick meal in Wendy’s before heading over […]

March 23, 2025

Gate Crashers (Review)

don’t quite remember where I got this one – probably a used bookstore. It didn’t have ISBN or copyright info, so I’m guessing self-published or an advance copy. Either way, it was a pretty good effort. So we have the Magellan, a deep-space exploration vessel making a time-dilated, sleep-chamber haul out on a mission of exploration. Deep in space they find an object with no relative motion, just sitting there. When they try to move it, it attempts to remain where it was, slams into the back of the shuttle bay and then burns out. Fortunately they can communication with […]

March 17, 2025

OpsLog – Highland Division – 3/16/2025

hen I was a small lad, I dreamed of dispatching. The idea of trains ordered to meet other trains at passing sidings, of rolling through stations, that was a really cool image. It was an unrealized dream. And now? Today on the New Haven Highland Division, dispatching was like Donkey Kong. The entire day I was running up ramps and jumping over barrels, tormented by a host of huge monkeys beating their chests. Really, I was wedged in a corner behind a panel that didn’t make a lot of sense at times, yelling across the room or squinting up at […]

March 17, 2025

Toto (Review)

f this book’s vector didn’t immediately jump out at you, let me remind you. Toto is Dorothy’s little dog from the Wizard of Oz. Oh yes, that dog. We saw this with Wicked and A Barnstormer in Oz. These are reimagining of the classic movie we all watched as kids, that big event. in each case, we see the various elements recast, either humorously or horrifically. And this work is no exception. Tota is a clever, sharp, wisecracking mutt who is still trying to wrap around the through that his beloved Dorothy and the Gales (Henry and Em) turned him […]

March 13, 2025

Leading the horse to water (DOG EAR)

o I’ve been thinking about the divided nation we live in. People are so touchy now (and being a “people”, I suppose that extends to me). In my wife’s weekly coffee club, someone invited a clod who sat across from me and talked politics to the person next to him (in rude and belittling ways) until I silently got up and walked out. So I figured to try that reach-across-the-divide thing that people always tout. On one Facebook post, someone was claiming that it was right for the VA to be shuttered since there was supposedly massive fraud taking place. […]

March 9, 2025

OpsLog – FEC – 3/8/2025

ait, wait, wait. That’s all railroading was sometimes. The engineer for 101 South yawned through his bushy beard, the setting sun painting the right side of his lead unit, reflecting off the shiny refrigerated cars behind him, turning their white and orange flanks almost toyish in its light. Already the track-side buildings were silhouetted, their long shadows hiding the grubby weeds and litter along the Florida East Coast main. Fortunately he was running south with empty reefers; while he wouldn’t have time-critical oranges losing value, there were still schedule commitments to keep. It was the height of harvest and they […]

March 9, 2025

Slant (Review)

‘ve never read much of Greg Bear’s work. Just didn’t spin out that way (and I doubt he’s read any of mine, so we’re even, I guess). Picked up Slant from the used bookstore right before it folded. My final purchase. So in the book, we at the midpoint of our century. You can see echoes of our times in this one – some Global Warming issues, breakaway states (pretty much up in Militia country). AI is coming along, with one of the characters inorganic. Nanotech and general tech have improved to the point where you can change your body […]

March 6, 2025

OpsLog – P&WV – 03/05/2025

retty simple one for today. Got an invite from Tom Wilson to run on his enjoyable Pittsburgh & West Virginia, a sprawling steel mill run with lots of outlying coal mines and some connecting lines (Union RR) that I still don’t think I understand. Happily, he finally corrected his railroad to be geographically correct (with East and West on the right ends) and screw the magnetic board (which I never use (and which he forgot to set out for me)). So he invited a bunch of other retirees (which speaks well about retirement) and a couple of out-of-town visitors for […]

March 2, 2025

OpsLog – WBRR – 3/1/2025

hat I’m going to tell you can save your life!” This was my attention-getting opener for my clinic on Time Table & Train Order and, as hoped, really got attention and jacked everyone up in their seats. Al Sohl held this clinic/open house at his place – it wasn’t really an NMRA “official” event, just his club hosting clinics and an op session for people to have fun. I was third up; Eric M and Chip P had already gone (very good clinics on how the Western Bay scenery and how to present to judges for your show-pieces in working towards […]