robert.admin – Page 30 – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

May 26, 2024

OpsLog – VSW – 05/25/2024

uite a day over at the Virginia SouthWestern. It was great to have four members there – all in our yellow shirts! we looked like some sort of Japanese anime super-group – “N-Trak Avengers ASSEMBLE!” Also present were two old-time members, Bob M and Frankie Z. Good to see the old group reformed, ready to show these HO guys how we do things! Kinda a bit of a bracer, to sit in the L&N hotseat and get ready to do dispatcher magic. So much is weighing on this – if I mess up, everyone will know (so much for that […]

May 23, 2024

OpsLog – LM&O – 5/22/2024

o we had a crazy session last night – all sorts of delays. John C had to pry a dead bird out of Greg W’s grill (no wonder he was thinking about chicken for dinner the long drive out). And then Shannon and I had to deal with club business – once the air was cleared, we could get on with Zach B’s threats (pre-brief) and get down to the business of running trains. And for that, let me set the scene for the opening hour. Imagine Pete dressed in a dapper suit, smoking a high-brand cigarette. He’s in the […]

May 19, 2024

OpsLog – LM&O – 5/18/2024

ou’ll notice that this OpsLog starts with a banner image, a nice one captured by Zach B during the pre-dawn hours of our club operations, a special Saturday Night Special event open only to club members (God help us – we can’t afford to have guests wandering around while we’re running under subdued lighting). The thing is, it was a usual session held on a weekend where we shut down the bank of lights over the layout, making things gloomy and using the layout’s lighting to best effect (you’ll notice the Westinghouse Bridge in the background of the above shot, […]

May 19, 2024

OpsLog – FEC – 05/18/2024

ell, this just shows the dangers of over-scheduling. In my defense, we’d agreed to have “night ops” at the club layout this Saturday, and then a few days later the FEC crew call came out. The club is a commitment I have to honor (and it’s fun) but the FEC hasn’t run in six months and I wanted to jump back aboard (it’s also fun). So that’s it – run to Palm Bay in the morning, operate until late afternoon, then burn across half the state to the LM&O for the evening session. And I had a sandwich with me […]

May 19, 2024

The Goodbye Cat (Review)

while ago I wrote a review for The Traveling Cat Chronicles, which I heard about in Japan (movie poster below) and found that the book had been translated into English. It was a great story form the cat’s point of view of a man and his furry companion, traveling Japan together, trying to find the cat a new home for reasons that are horribly poignant when finally revealed. It was a great story that brought tears to my eyes. Since I only seem to find better literature in other countries, I was snooping the stacks in the Amsterdam train station […]

May 16, 2024

Parrotheads (DOG EAR)

t’s interesting to look over this history of Jimmy Buffett and his hit Margaritaville. After all, he was a guy hanging out in the Caribbean and supposedly wrote this song that resonated amongst all the sad yuppies of the world. The song in its imagined state implies a laid-back lifestyle. But if you look at the lyrics, it’s more about a marginalized alcoholic “wasting away” in the bottom of a margarita glass, who is wandering aimlessly and slowly realizing that he fucked up his life and there is no coming back. The thing is, Buffett was no fool. Soon as […]

May 12, 2024

AmnotTrak – a Cautionary Tale

o here was the plan – drive my snowbirding mother up from Daytona Beach and drop her at my sister’s in Norfolk. Then, after a few days of bookstores and coffee shops, pick up an Amtrak train south to ride back to Orlando, Florida. After all, I like trains. And I’d just suffered a long flight and crippling legroom of Icelandair. I didn’t want to fly. I wanted to ride a roomy train. What could go wrong? The train picked was 91 which I’d board at Staples Mill Station, Richmond at 5:30 PM. I figured I’d sleep on the train […]

May 12, 2024

American Gods (Review)

eil Gaiman can always be counted on to provide interesting and clever fiction. And this one, his massive tome of American Gods, shows this ability to the utmost. So figure that gods need people to make them exist. They exist through belief. Belief is what makes gods live, and brings them power. So of course, American has no gods before there are people (the rest of the world is lousy with them). And as humans arrive, across the Barents Strait, grind their longboat prows into Newfoundland, settle in Plymouth, arrive to build railroads, to escape a potato famine, or are […]

May 9, 2024

The problem with that warrior bitch (DOG EAR)

ccasionally people buy my books on Amazon and Smashwords – gratifying. The pocket change is nice. Of course, the entire reason this site exists is for me to peddle my books while attending more book shows, writing more books and being famous and all. Well, most of that didn’t happen but I have to admit, I enjoy blogging and posting every little bullshit that comes to mind. But still, the minor monetization of the site is part of it, so for every posting (and I have thousands of them), I always add a link to my page with Amazon links. […]

May 6, 2024

OpsLog – WAZU – 5/5/2024

need you to run manifest 223,” the dispatcher told me. “It’s almost two hours late.” So fine. In minutes I was rattling through the Spokane throat, running at track speed, wheels sparking off the multiple frogs and points. I was reminded of the old flick Broadway Limited. These were the times you needed to lean out of the cab window, face into the wind, sliding your goggles over your eyes. Then I thought of something. “Dispatcher, 223. What’s my authority to?” “Pasco yard. And move it. I want you to make up time.” “Got it. Highball.” Hit Pasco and Klauck […]