robert.admin – Page 19 – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

July 10, 2024

OpsLog – TBL – 7/9/2024

o it’s the day after. I’m sitting in the local coffee house with a cup of joe, looking all urbane and cool. And it’s hard to sip coffee with this big mother-loving smile on my face. We had a great session last night. The Tusk has been down for a couple of months with computer problems. The interlocking tower would either fail to boot or, after an innocent start, suddenly fail catastrophically. I have people who drive a hundred miles to attend. I can’t risk getting them out here for an annulled session. Thanks and praise goes to designer Steve […]

July 7, 2024

Monstrous Regiment (Review)

o yes, this was the book I gave to the young girl with the hankering for female-orientated fantasy, as detailed HERE. In this Terry Pratchett Diskworld novel, the small, pious and stupid country of Borogravia has declared was on just about everyone. They block the roads and burn down the Clack towers. And this state of endless “police actions” have depopulated much of their country of fine young men and produced many widows. Young Polly works in her father’s tavern yet she wonders about her brother who marched off to war just last year. There were one or two heavily […]

July 5, 2024

On Sheet – Far side of the Moon

‘ve been in our club since a couple of months after its informal creation, nearly forty years ago. And in that time, I’ve noticed a number of things about clubs and model railroaders. Watch out for storytellers. They will saw your ears off. I will saw your ears off. There are always engines better than yours, and always engines worse than yours. Be happy with what you’ve got. When you dinner with these guys, there is always someone who is generous, possibly picking up your check to reciprocate for something you’ve done. And there is someone who always “forgets their […]

June 30, 2024

OpsLog – LM&O (Saturday Night Special) – 6/29/2024

man distinguished in his tweed jacket and ennobled by his bald spot puffs his pipe briefly before facing the camera. “Good evening. I’m your host and dispatcher Robert Raymond, club gopher and blogger for Orlando N-Trak club. And tonight, I bring you The Leigh, Monongahela and Ohio Review. This episode is titled A Study in Contrasts. “Moving westbound, imagine two sections of passenger 97. In First 97, we have plucky Pete F, an engineer new to Time Table and Train Order operations, enthusiastic to the point of running a bit ahead of his time, knowing he’s got a large five […]

June 30, 2024

Queen City Jazz (Review)

o this is a story about a young girl in a world where nanotech ran amuck, where cities are now haves of nanotech, constantly building themselves anew, ever expanding, and infecting the humans around them with strange new personalities and improvements. And like Dorothy being drawn to the Emerald City (not “like” but rather “exactly”), a young farm girl brings her dead boyfriend and dead dog, preserved in status, to this place to see if she can possibly revive them (so that’s “Brain” and “Heart”, I guess). And I know that author Kathleen Ann Goonan went on to even greater […]

June 28, 2024

On Sheet – The Problem with Nazareth

ur club layout has a very simple arrangement – there is a central yard (Martin) in the middle, the staging at the far ends of the railroad (Cincinnati and Bound Brook). For almost two decades, six freight trains (three in each direction) would enter Martin Yard and swap out a handful of cars. These cars would go onto the three primary locals (Shelfton, Mingo Junction and Zanesville). When the cars got to the industry and spent a time being unloaded, they’d be sent back to the yard to go onto east and west trains. it was a nice little flow, […]

June 27, 2024

OpsLog – LM&O – 6/26/2024

ur group seems to form great teams of solid operators. A lot of layouts ask for us, even confirm that we can make it before announcing a session. Among other places that request us, there are the Virginia SouthWestern, the West Virginia Northern, the Florida East Coast and the Western Bay. It’s a shame that if we did not actually build and maintain the Leigh, Monongahela & Ohio we probably wouldn’t have been invited at all. I mean, look at last night’s session. First off, there was all the dramas before the clock even went hot. I actually approved of […]

June 26, 2024

Bow (DOG EAR)

verything is about recognition. It’s been said that the only reason anyone does anything is for money or respect. I’ve always wanted some heartfelt sign of respect. Oh, I’ve gotten it from time to time. My friend Greg gave me a great model railroad engine (sound and the works) for saving his life. The bloodbank gives me a $20 each time I drop a pint. Still, I’m always seeking it – a true cowboy tipping his ten-gallon hat and saying “Obliged” (and not after you move your liberal ass out of Texas but because, maybe, you saved him from an […]

June 23, 2024

OpsLog – FEC – 6/22/2024

read a lot of books. In fact, I’ve read all the Hornblower novels. Even read the Patrick O’Brian novels about a British expedition that rounds Cape Horn with its endless pounding storms. And I didn’t get the heaving and scurvy of that passage in the op session, but I got the damn rain! I was at the dispatcher’s desk in the “command” shed, along with the missus and the Farnhams. In the other shed, we had a full house and a heavy schedule. And we might as well have been ships in a storm-tossed formation, for all the chance of […]

June 23, 2024

The Sins of our Fathers (Review)

ell, like fine wine, I’ve been saving the Memory’s Legion collection by James S.A. Corey to enjoy, sip by sip. And I just finished the last glass with The Sin of our Fathers. This collection was a great set of stories that acted as prequels and sequels to the popular Expanse series. In each, a character from the massive set is exampled in an often-new light, showing where he or she came from and where they ended. And in this final story, we find out what happened to Filip Nagata, the tug-of-war son between Naomi and Marco (who was the maniac […]