robert.admin – Page 42 – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

December 14, 2023

OpsLog – TBL – 12/13/2023

not-so-good solo run on the Tuscarora last night. The original plan was to run a session by myself before the club. But I just started a really good book and didn’t want to break away from it. Read for a while, went to the club, showed guests around, helped out here and there, and finally (about 9:30 when most people had gone home) I set up a session and ran the default position. The basic reason was that I’d just gotten my SW-7 back from the shop and wanted to make sure it ran well. I mean, one guy running. […]

December 14, 2023

Backup Blogs (DOG EAR)

his blog on books, media and our perceptions is a labor of love. It is not monetized in any way. I don’t make any money off it (in fact, I pay out the nose to support it (and the blogs aren’t free, either)). No ads pop up. I don’t beg for likes and subscribes. I just like writing it and occasionally someone tells me they enjoyed what I have written. So it’s worked out so far. Then came this “paperwork thing” I’ve had to do. The National Model Railroad Association has a series of achievement programs where, if you get […]

December 8, 2023

On Scope – Nostalgia and Youth

orgive me for a “You kids get off my lawn” post, but I’m feeling that way today. I don’t want to go into the details of why – I’ve had people get pissed about things I reflect on and don’t feel like taking a lot of heat on this. But here we go. For whatever reason, I’ve come to realize that many of the younger modelers have come into this hobby by a different path than I. While I wasn’t one of those tin-plate kids, I did start off with an HO layout I remember to this day my dad […]

December 7, 2023

OpsLog – PWV – 12/6/2023

t was good to get out to Tom’s place again for another running of the Pittsburgh and West Virginia. It wasn’t good to get out to Rt 27 and fight all that traffic but, oh well, good things come with costs. But anyway, yes, I got a chance to dispatch his line, always a pleasure. Using warrants, I went with his train sheet and ignored the magnetic board. A good slow pace which gave me a chance to really stay ahead of the railroad, lining up ideas for coming meets and moves. Had a bit of a problem with some […]

December 7, 2023

Santa’s burly, dangerous helper (DOG EAR)

ookophiles, it’s nearly Christmas (or Xmas, which means, what, “Extreme Christmas”?) and you know what it’s time for again, don’t you? Yes, it’s time for putting antlers and even a red poofy nose on your FUV. Okay, let’s look at this. I can’t take credit for coining the “FUV” phrase. It came from “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me” on NPR. One of the guests slipped and said it and I made it my very own. An FUV (i.e. an SUV) is an oversized car, sometimes riding high on a heavy chassis, a total Americanization/Consumerization of the standard automobile. And, as […]

December 3, 2023

OpsLog – WBRR – 12/2/2023

kay, now that I got your attention with this beautiful shot by Jim Mathis of D&RGW #475 steaming through the miniature (but not as miniature as I’m used to) world of his Western Bay Railroad, let’s get into the details. Four members of the club got invites to head down to Port St. Lucie to run on his O-scale narrow gauge layout that captures railroad action in the Rockies in 1932. As usual, I was station agent at Dulce, Dolores and that shack of a place, Placerville Jct (located way outside of Placerville proper – it’s a long cold walk […]

December 3, 2023

Never Surrender (Review)

icked this up – as usual – at the local used bookstore and it was quite the find. Never Surrender tells the history of the relationship between the British, German and French governments between World War One to World War Two, and specifically Winston Churchill’s efforts to keep England in the fight and not surrender to the fascists. Specifically, it zooms in on 1940, with the fall of France and the beginning of the Battle of Britain (when England literally stood alone). It’s quite a breathtaking time when you think about it, and how the world could have been forever […]

December 1, 2023

On Sheet – TT&MMI

ou’ve all heard me go on endlessly about TT&TO (Time Table and Train Order). I love the idea that the operators are forced to put more skin in the game, to read their rules, understand how the railroad works, and consider what moves they will make. On my Tuscarora Branch Lines, we do run TT&TO with pre-printed orders. My operators will hoop them but will not consider what they say sometimes. For example, in the session last week, we had an extra coal movement departing Easton (the eastern end of my little division). Right behind him was a scheduled train, […]

November 30, 2023

Sharp and Short (DOG EAR)

et’s talk about a media I really love – phones! I have to carry a phone originally because I ride a bike in the worst city in America to do so – Orlando, Florida. Here, people fly through stop signs, race too fast, corner without looking or signalling, and if they do crush a cyclist, the jury always lets them off. So yes, a couple of times I’ve ended up with a bent bike on the side of the road, calling for the wife to skyhook me home. Originally I didn’t share the number with anyone. It was my emergency […]

November 30, 2023

OpsLog – LM&O – 11/29/2023

t seemed like a good idea of the time. Look, the “official” session (usually on the fourth Wednesday of the month) was right before Thanksgiving. We did run (detailed HERE). However, some members left town for the holidays (possibly to elude creditors). Others had loved ones to get back home to (or whatever passed as such). Either way, while we did run every freight but one, and every passenger train but one, we missed a lot of the mineral trains and fast freight traffic. But hey, since we have a fifth Wednesday and nobody knew what to do with it, […]