robert.admin – Page 35 – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

January 21, 2024

OpsLog – TBL – 1/21/2024

short entry for a short session – our control problems continue on the Tuscarora Branch Line, which means I can’t trust it to operate in any manner and so I can’t invite people to drive hundreds of miles for a dud session. I only hope that Steve the engineering guy comes up with a solution. God, but I hate this constant on again / off again failure. My friend Greg came over to run with me (hey, we had movie-night lined up after, so not a total loss). We only managed to run half a session before the constant failures […]

January 21, 2024

Tales from Watership Down (Review)

ne of my most influential books on my writing and storytelling was Richard Adams’ Watership Down. While the story is reviewed by me HERE, it is, in a nutshell, a story of an epic quest and a stirring battle as a band of rabbits leave a doomed warren for their holy high ground, which is Watership Down (a hillock in England). Anyone I respect as a reader has cracked this one open. Great story. I even convinced a mother and her daughter to read it as related HERE. Got a Christmas card from them and they have completed (and loved […]

January 19, 2024

On Sheet – you can’t know it all

kay, I really like TT&TO (Time Table and Train Order) operations. I run that on both of my layouts. I also fly all the way across the country to run at La Mesa under this method. Ever since Steve King invited me to his layout and gave me a write-up on it, I’ve been a fan. I’ve even given a clinic about it at the Protorails convention and been asked to re-give the clinic at private layouts. I’m getting ready to dispatch it in June on the Western Bay RR. I thought I was pretty clever. One place where I […]

January 18, 2024

The game is afoot! (DOG EAR)

ames are media and so they get an occasional spot on my media-blog. And here it is! The thing about games is how diverse the field is now. Using Steam, you can choose from thousands of games of any genre you prefer. It’s all there. My first game (and the reason I signed up on Steam) is Spelunky. Originally a freebee eight-bit game, in Spelunky, you play the role of a spelunker who is trying to get to the bottom of a maze of tunnels. The remake (the first, not “2”) really was my prefect go-to comfort game – there […]

January 15, 2024

ShowLog – Deland – 1/(13-14)/2024

‘m not sure how to write this show report up. I could start with a description of getting up at 5am Saturday, a quick shower, a drive to the donut shop to pick up treats for the setup crew, and then hissing through empty streets in moderate rains, hoping it would let up before it was time to unload the trailer I would shortly be rendezvousing with for setup. Or the host of problems we faced, from inexplicable radio problems to a dead section of track to some scenery problems here and there. We should have brought the “Robert” button. […]

January 14, 2024

Lupin III: Thick as Thieves (Review)

wasn’t going to buy anything other than coffee when my wife and I visited a cafe/comic/game/manga store. But when I saw Lupin III: Thick as Thieves, a manga (Japanese comic) on their shelf and looked it over, okay, had to have it. For those of you who don’t pay attention to things on the other side of the globe, the Lupin III phenomena is a popular and timeless Japanese story about Lupin, the grandson of the famous French Gentleman Thief (with one of the books of that series reviewed HERE). This new fellow is a comical character, with his monkey-face […]

January 13, 2024

On Sheet – Up Scope

very submarine movie has the guy who loses it during combat. The close spaces. The press of bodies. The loud noises. Usually they need to either gag him or club him before the enemy sonar operators hear his gibbering. It’s a trope. Not so well understood or experienced is when it happens in an op session. Everyone has had the session where you are having to do a lot of repeated indexing moves and a specific car derails at the same spot every time. Or confusing paperwork. Or other operators yacking right next to your ear, pressing close. Some people […]

January 11, 2024

Not again dammit! (DOG EAR)

o this sucks. I’d been invited to help run three model railroads during a local event. I’ve proven myself to the owners with running and dispatching their lines. Super. These were jammed into two days and as I always do, I wanted to blog each of them (my blogs are famous in the local community). The next morning (early) I went to write the first one. Everything went fine until I went to include my link to my website’s book page (where my various offerings are available). And wouldn’t you know it – the references to Amazon (which you have […]

January 7, 2024

ImPossible Histories (Review)

eah, I’ve read Turtledove. And Dick. And all the famous alternate historical fictions. Even tried my hand with Early ReTyrement. Historical fictions can be fun to read and even to contemplate. But then comes Im-Possibe Histories by Hal Johnson. On one hand, this book about ways the world could change was well-thought out. in others, it was a laf-riot. Johnston has a witty sense of humor that he sprinkles across interesting ways that history might have changed if something had gone elseways. Some of them are far reaching in fallouts one couldn’t see coming. Some are funny and obviously dead ends […]

January 6, 2024

OpsLog – P&WV – 1/4/2024

his was my third ops session in the two days of protorails – I’d been invited in to round out the crews and provide dispatching. So, a long day, starting with an accident that had me sitting in traffic for over an hour, then a full day at the VSW, then a run over to Tom Wilson’s Pittsburgh & West Virginia (or is it “East Virginia”? Tom Wilson’s geographic directions are always so confusing). Then a heavy dinner (the Wilsons made sure we were fed). And after all that, I settled in the back room with my phone, my train […]