robert.admin – Page 205 – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

November 21, 2012

OpsLog – Nebraska Division – 11/11/2012

It’s good to be king (as the saying goes). And in ops, it’s good to be the dispatcher. Sure, you don’t get to actually run a train. But you do get to do something that lasts the entire session. And often is a pretty busy job. I’ve had times when it wasn’t, when I’m sitting at my desk playing Kennedy Approach or something like that because the owner didn’t come up with enough for the DS to do. Not a problem on the Nebraska Division. I’m always busy. Even with the new timetable, I was busy this time. We had […]

November 18, 2012

OpsLog – Tehachapi – 11/4/2012

It was my train, dammit. It’d come in from Famoso late Saturday evening, my pal Jerry running the cut. I rolled out of the Bakersfield roundhouse with a puffy consolidation, ready to latch onto the back and push for all I was worth. For the next ninety minutes, we switched cars, waited, helped the yardlettes, waited, begged for clearance, and waited. The session ended with us built and aimed at the yard throat. The next morning, I showed up and got into my seat, only to get tossed out by Bob, my supposed relief. WTF? This was MY train! I […]

November 18, 2012

OpsLog – Tehachapi – 11/3/2012

As I mount the footplate to my Santa Fe steam engine hissing seven boxcars up from the caboose at the end of this mile-long (or so it feels) freight train, I reflect how nice it is when everyone agrees. The crew had met over the register book in the ATSF yard office, discussing our coming eastbound run from Bakersfield to Mojave. Long trains (such as ours) give me an antacid attack – we can’t really fit anywhere, not without a lot of flagging and sawing and stuff, so I’m not happy about that. To make matters worse, we’ve got an […]

November 17, 2012

Greek to me

It’s been an eventful couple of weeks here at RobertRaymond.com. I’ve never been comfortable with the site’s lack of backup. After initiating it a few years back, I never found a backup system that seemed to work (you know the drill – you install something, follow the instructions, and suddenly you are at a screen that doesn’t match the instructions; Monopoly on a Ouija board. So I’ve been meaning to do that. It was my intention. Blah blah. Then a few weeks ago, I started getting a lot of registration activity on my board. Yay, me! Every hour, another registrant. […]

November 17, 2012

OpsLog – Tehachapi – 11/2/2012

After the long flight to San Diego, after breakfast/lunch (watching dubiously as one of our group has an omelet and beer), after naps and dinner at City Deli, it’s time to head over to the sprawling La Mesa Model Railroad Club (located in a museum basement in Balboa Park) and help set up. La Mesa is a huge place. They’ve modeled the route from Bakersfield to Mojave in 25 scale miles, running it in a simulated 1952 under Time Table and Train Order rules. It’s always a blast to run here – its like a mix of railroading and La […]

October 31, 2012

Robert Raymond, Vampire Hunter

Months in the marking… Back around March or April, my admin told me (following my stint as a carnie barker at a work function) that she knew what I should be in our Halloween work party – Abe Lincoln, Vampire Slayer. The idea had appeal. It took some doing. First, JB and I went to see that silly movie, just to see what it was about. Then I read a book on Lincoln. Then, a month ago, I started letting my beard grow out so I’d have something to work with. And then the final weeks – renting a tailed […]

October 28, 2012

NO UPDATES FOR A WEEK OR SO

The site will be undergoing maintenance and background work, and I’ll be occupied with other hobby efforts. This means I won’t really have any updates for the next week or so. See you when I get back!

October 28, 2012

Starwolf (Review)

These days, scifi is a pretty black and white affair, vast black space and dusty white lifeless planets. Nothing got that across for me than Ark, showing what happens when you are lucky in launching a desperate colonization effort. And there was Flying to Valhalla. Same deal. But Starwolf is old school scifi. Written as a three-book saga in the early 60’s and reprinted as a collection in the 80’s, it’s a bold splash of color. Space is stuffed with golden nebulas and Christmas-light stars. Who cares that dead worlds somehow have an atmosphere? Who cares that the party lands […]

October 25, 2012

Unlikely Heroes (DOG EAR)

The wife and I had ridden our bikes to dinner, then to yogurt over at the village center of Baldwin Park. Understand that Baldwin is a neo-community, one built on a perfectly good naval training center. It’s smart and clever and cute and as plastic as, well, plastic. It’s fake from end to end. But they have the only yogurt shop within wife-cycling range, so there you go. While there, I saw a couple of Goths hanging out on the benches amid the manufactured quaintness, desperately seeking an identity. Like Illinois Nazis, it’s hard to take Baldwin Park Goths seriously. […]

October 24, 2012

OpsLog – LM&O – 10/24/2012

I‘m pushing cars into Hendler Paper in Mingo Jct as the simulated night grows deeper and the session winds down. There are two spurs here, shipping 1 and shipping 2, and I’ve got to sort my mixed cut onto the correct ones. No problem since I see a slick way to do it. It’s been a fun night. Even though attendance was a little on the light side, we’re moving most of the trains. Further, my buddy/rival is running the board and having a bad night. Harris Glen was locked up tighter than the Grinch getting twisted up in a […]