robert.admin – Page 36 – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

October 22, 2023

OpsLog – FEC – 10/21/2023

ot home after a long late drive from the east coast to find, on the aptly-named “Discord”, that my friends who also attended the Farnhams’ FEC session were chortling about long waits. Really? I was on the big green panel that day and, in all honesty, I was playing it like a virtuoso on a grand piano (just saying). We started out late because of a pre-session chat. Once I took my seat and the clock started, I was looking at four trains on the layout and two holding in the wings of staging, waiting to come out. In short […]

October 20, 2023

On Sheet – Train Order Boards Revisited

don’t want to get into all the details. Recently, when attending a huge TT&TO session at the La Mesa Model Railroad club in San Diego, I thought I saw a train order board being misused. Later, while hanging out at another station with an old SP guy running it, I mentioned the “mistake” I’d witnessed. Turns out, as he explained it, I was wrong. Great, and I’ve written multiple blogs and given two clinics (as well as did it on my Tuscarora) incorrectly. So I’ll correct it now. Train order signals (as shown in the photo to the right) tell […]

October 19, 2023

Drug addict (DOG EAR)

his is a sad story. Recently I was at the La Mesa Club housed in the San Diego Model Railroad museum. I was there for one of their operations events, where they run their massive layout under 1950s methods, with written orders and manned stations. It’s not for the faint of heart or the impatient of mind – you can wait for hours and hours for a train, or even find yourself standing in a siding for an eternity. Also, I get cell phones and why they are so cool and convenient to have. My friend I went out there […]

October 18, 2023

OpsLog – La Mesa – 10/15/2023

e were sitting in our uber on Park Boulevard in Balboa Park, looking to our left. “What the crispy crap…?” There is an endless scarlet flood streaming past, agitated and churning. Lava? No, it’s a breast cancer awareness march. And our event is on the other side of it. “We’ll get out here,” Steve tells the driver. And if there is one moment I’ll always remember, it’s Steve Hooper, man’s man, pushing through a sea of pink tutus. What a crazy start to the day. But we’re here to run trains, right? Having learned a lesson yesterday, I stuck tight […]

October 17, 2023

OpsLog – La Mesa – 10/14/2021

ur first day on the railroad. We started with the crews gathered and the home hoggers telling us what we needed to know and what was expected. The first was a two-man job up in Walong, just below the famous loop. Looked at Steve and asked if he wanted to start out together. Sure. So we grabbed the job, our bags, and headed out into the sun-fried hills of central California. We found ourselves on a PFE (Pacific Fruit Express) reefer block, just starting to thaw. It worked out that he’d get the front end (and the conductor duties) and […]

October 16, 2023

OpsLog – La Mesa – 10/(12-13)/2023

ot the invite for an operations session over at La Mesa, one of the largest and more realistic operations sessions anywhere. For those who don’t know it, the La Mesa club sprawls across a significant amount of the Balboa Park Railroad Museum in San Diego (also filling two floors – yes, you climb 2% from one floor to the one above). The HO railroad is twenty-five scale miles long, modelling the run between Mojave to Bakersfield (including the famous Tehachapi Loop). The area is faithfully modelling the scenery from 1950s. And that is appropriate because the session simulates operations in […]

October 8, 2023

Destroyermen 5 : Rising Tides (Review)

o now I’m into the fifth of the Destroyermen series – only about ten more to go. And it’s been a long haul. As I mentioned elsewhere, Taylor Anderson’s unique series involves a four-stacker destroyer, plucked from early World War Two and placed in a world where humans occasionally fall into (where maybe the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs didn’t). Everyone thinks Final Countdown when they hear me speak of it. Anyway, the book continues to expand. It’s funny, but looking back to the first book, we only had a puny little map of the sea around Java. As Captain […]

October 8, 2023

ShowLog – Deland – 10/7/2023

nteresting train show. For me, it started at 5am when I’m standing alone in the donut shop, that is alone but for the wizened old homeless guy standing right at my shoulder. “You into… trains?” he hiccuped. I thought, “Yeah, except for the hobo part”. Placed my order quick (you’ll notice the lack of selection this time) and blew out of there. The lady behind the counter didn’t like like the sort to take this sort of shit (along Rt 50, she probably has practice). Anyway, following our flawless setup at the Volusia County Fairgrounds (thanks, guys. You earned your […]

October 6, 2023

On Sheet – Codedancers

t all started two decades ago when a lot of people died. Well, not real people. Model railroad pretend people. Back then, our club used to use a big metal board (about six feet long) to keep track of trains (which were magnets). The dispatcher would move these about and dictate warrants from the situation he saw. A major problem occurs when you try this. I liked to write “hyperspace” warrants for passenger trains. You know, with the line clear, I’d write a warrant to get that train moving and stay moving across the division. The problem is that I […]

October 5, 2023

My Thoughts on Curbside Libraries (DOG EAR)

uddenly Curbside Libraries are popping up all over the place. Since I tend to walk a lot, I’ll pass them often and nose in, seeing if there is anything interesting. I hate to say it, but judging America’s reading levels, it is pretty bleak. Most of the time, it is grim. Generally there are two things in these boxes – children’s books (not beloved classics, but just general teach-a-lesson books) and utility books (cookbooks, self-help books, etc). Really, this is what you people read? A few years back, I was riding my bike and came across a stack of books […]