robert.admin – Page 3 – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

June 30, 2026

OpsLog – FEC – 6/27/2026

bit of a bittersweet session over at the Farnham’s Florida East Coast Railroad. A couple of us backed out of club obligations to be there. You see, it’s rumored (strongly (by the hosts)) that the FEC will be coming down soon. We might only have a couple of sessions left on the old girl. A couple of decades ago, my operations were pretty much restricted to a round-robin group in Orlando. The FEC was one of my first “away game” railroads. I don’t even remember how I got my invite. But that was the gateway that introduced me to the […]

June 28, 2026

Carthage – A New History (Review)

kay, I have to mention that this book came to me in a strange way, and nearly left in another strange way. I became aware of this while driving home from Tampa, listening to NPR (because, God Sakes, what else is there to listen to at Plant City). They had a story about how books get selected by “Book Buyers”, people who represent chains of bookstores and consider books based on dimensions, cover art, content and market appeal. The interviewer was talking to one Book Buyer about all this, and asked for an example. The buyer said something like, “Well, […]

June 26, 2026

OpsLog – YVRR – 6/25/2026

o this is supposed to be a blog about an op session. But I need to mention what happened before… TravelToOpsLog – After brunch with the wife at the local coffee shop, I hit the road at 11:30 am, heading to Jack F’s Yosemite Valley Railroad. I’d meet another member there for a small three-man session. I’ve run it before and it’s lots of fun. So before leaving the parking lot, I put in my earbuds (please disregard, any FHP-readers), fired up my audible player and hit the road. I was just settling into the story and picking up speed on […]

June 26, 2026

OpsLog – LM&O – 6/24/2026

o I’m sitting in the cab of trusty 4263, perhaps the cleanest engine of the SP fleet. I’ve got my cup of coffee. I’ve got my warrant out. From behind me, I can smell the rust and powdered limestone dust off the empty hoppers, bound for Hidden Spur. In the distant tower, the leverman works. The exit dwarf goes green. I reach for the throttle. And then it’s lights out as someone hits me in the back of the head with a bag full of dried track erasers. I come to on the ballast of… squinting… Martin Yard. My engines […]

June 21, 2026

OpsLog – TBL – 6/20/2026

o the Tuscarora Branch Lines was designed as a one-man show that eventually expanded to five positions (scheduled engineer, coal extra engineer, leverman, station operator and dispatcher) and even seven (two brakemen). It’s flexible. Was thinking of a run recently and Zeus (young man-about-town college guy) popped the thought of having a session this weekend. We set up for the title-mentioned-date, high noon. I also had one maybe and one suspected crew, so I prepped for four (even five) because sometimes people just show up. Turns out the maybes were maybe-nots and I got a call from Zeus at 12:05 […]

June 21, 2026

Cosmic Banditos (Review)

ecommended this book to a friend, based on my fond memories of it. He said he sounded interested. That made me interested. I hadn’t read it for 40 years (since it came out). Did I even still have my old copy? After all, there was the cull I’d done when I had to move everything out to a pod and back in the blazing sun (termite treatment in the house). Happily, I found it. And since I wasn’t reading anything, I put it on the top of my list. So Cosmic Banditos is a book that explores the drug trade, South American […]

June 15, 2026

OpsLog – WAZU – 6/14/2026

ps are never what I think they are going to be. Usually they are cluster-fugs. Either you have a wonderful layout but a crew of newbies (or casuals) and the session flops because of them. Or our club, when a wide spread of skills, a large yet elderly layout, and with just everyone doing everything (with guests wandering about, sometimes stealing from us) it can be chaotic. Even my small Tuscarora can be an effort, like if one guy comes and wants to clown about. They are never the small number of dedicated, experienced and studious crews that I imagine quiet […]

June 14, 2026

OpsLog – TBL – 06/13/2026

ent over to the club on a quiet Saturday and met up with Pete and Jim P. They did whatever and I ran a quiet session of Tuscarora, solo. I’d just started and realized I’d wished I’d brought my spare handheld throttle so that I could switch over to the other side to run the Drill move. As it stood (pun intended), every back up and drop move required me to climb out of my chair and fuss with my readers, trying to uncouple a car. This was shaping up to be a drag when the unthinkable happened – After […]

June 14, 2026

The Faith of Beasts (Review)

he second book of the Captive’s War Trilogy now extends our understanding of what is going on across the universe in a war that defies belief in scale and technology .The first book, The Mercy of Gods, dealt with a small colony lost (supposedly and hinted at) from The Expanse universe. There, the best of a world are carted off to an alien home world to do labwork and advancements or face being culled. Now, the team that survived has been scattered. With what we learned from the short story Livesuit, about the long-dead alien race from which all unbelievable […]

June 7, 2026

OpsLog – WBRR – 6/6/2026

got a chance to test out my new eyeballs, both for seeing through and for the ensuing tears trickling down my trembling cheeks. Fun session in that chaotic way that the Western Bay runs, fun but frantic. I was part of a group of “northerners” who went down there – Terry B, John L, Jack F and Jim M. I’d be dispatching and Jim was my western Station Agent – Al would be eastern. Jim and I know how this goes and have worked it in the past. Al just beats the shit out of me (to be explained). Started […]