robert.admin – Page 28 – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

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 […]

June 21, 2024

On Sheet – Seniority

ne of the problems we faced on our club layout is staffing up trains and running everything. On a home layout, that really isn’t a problem. If you wish to do it this way, you can tie in a firm understand with your operators that – outside of special cases – you stay until the session is over. And you should attend a debrief (the owner has put a great deal of effort into a session and wants to hear, good and bad, how it went). I was at a session last year where some old duffer decided, in mid-session, […]

June 20, 2024

My Training for Blogging, or the other way ’round (DOG EAR)

y model train blogs seem to be popular. Every layout I visit knows I’m going to blog them. There is always a running joke about who is getting blogged this time. And then there are all those “On Sheet” pieces I write for another Facebook group, talking the this and thats of model railroading operations. I just checked tonight – there are 667 blogs (not including this one) on my site about trains. Thank goodness it wasn’t one less or it would set off some of the denominationals out there. But think about that – nearly 700 blogs about what […]

June 17, 2024

OpsLog – WAZU – 6/16/2024

kay, so I head-oned a train today. Yup, I admit it. I was trying to run the lumberjack and got a little distracted. I was trying to meet a train at Cheney, worried about getting out of his way since his engine had a camera taped on the nose and the operator was in the other room, doing a good job of looking like a misguided torpedo as he raced towards the fouling point I was still crossing. My entry was jarring, what with the short detector buzzing at crotch level, and the chorus of “Who’s on a switch!” rising […]

June 16, 2024

A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Review)

nother Norfolk used bookstore find (someone tossed it, to my gain). The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet is a tale about a tunnel ship (that makes the warp paths other ships can use. In this universe, a divided human race (after our planet’s collapse there were those who stayed in system, and those who joined a refugee fleet) finds itself as members of the Galactic Commons, a sort of UN in space sort of thing. Rosemary Harper has signed up on Wayfarer to be their ship’s clerk. But she has a history, something she is hiding. But the […]

June 14, 2024

On Sheet – Dis-Faster

he WAZU was our problem home layout. The owner wanted it to be modern high-speed rail service between Seattle and Portland – big trains running fast on open tracks. But whenever we did it, we quickly ended up with snarls on the railroad and the radios making everyone’s ears bleed. Of course, then the crews were having to shout at each other to be heard over the radio noise. Not good. And the owner did not want to install phones. We’ve done simple mother-may-I. Then we tried warrants. Each time we got some combination of booming radios and delayed trains. […]

June 13, 2024

OpsLog – TBL – 6/13/2024

uick blog for a quick session – Greg and I decided to run a fast one to test out the tower on a mid-day Wednesday (ah, the joy of retirement). And that’s why I found myself, with my operator on the drive over, discovering that the tower was not working. It was that fault 16 nonsense again, but other levers in that range would trigger it. Had chief engineer Steve on the line, weeping and crying at him, when it suddenly stopped and ran right as rain. Bullet proof. I can’t explain it. So Greg showed up and we ran […]

June 13, 2024

Embarrassed (DOG EAR)

car crash ended my writing career. I’ve gone over the particulars on this before. I was on the fast track up through my publishing house and then was shut down and dropped back to the writer’s basement of non-representation by an act of fate. Made a few more attempts and then settled down to write for myself. And I’ve used my gift to save a failing newsletter (and gain “street”-cred on that), and then there are my blogs. Writers are occasionally touched by Dog Ear. Readers like my Review. And model railroaders love my OpsLog and On Sheet. So yes, […]