robert.admin – Page 17 – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

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 […]

March 2, 2025

Wool (Review)

y friend Pete loaned this book (first of three) to read. I was a bit hesitant – I don’t know Pete’s tastes and if they weren’t mine, well, I’d just signed up for about 570 pages of regret. Needn’t have worried. Wool jumps right in. The last of humanity live in a silo underground, about 150 floors deep with nothing but a circular stairwell to join them. The world outside is toxic and dead, but people still enjoy sitting in front of the big display, watching it. And to keep those camera lenses clean, every so often (when someone cracks […]

February 27, 2025

OpsLog – LM&O – 2/26/2025

f the club has a motto for operations, it’s “Work it out on the ground”. Last night, it was more like “Wring it out of the Clown” with West-Side Dispatcher as the clown. Another “Have a beer when I get home” night at the old clubhouse. So the session started out well enough. We were running an LV Interchange train, a run that we’ll see if we can keep up with it. It’s a bit time-challenged but yes, it might work. But I’d talked things out with the locals (Mingo and Zanesville) and made a pinky promise with 927 (ZV) […]

February 27, 2025

Carbon-dating (DOG EAR)

ccording the media targeting senior citizens, I should have all my hair, be thin, and going off to play tennis (all day?) with my elf-princes wife. Sure, sure. As it is, I’ve got many life-injuries that ache a little more each day. And I’m missing my prostate, so I’m dealing with pelvic floor muscle exercises at every stop light. Getting up and bending under things gets harder and harder. Yes, it sucks. Getting older ain’t for sissies, right? While the physical is bad, the mental is worse. I’ve been dispatching our model railroad club (controlling trains) for over twenty years […]