robert.admin – Page 43 – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

June 4, 2023

OpsLog – WBRR – 06/03/2023

he teletype was idly clicking a slow message, a new dispatcher getting an OS report from Navajo down the line about a train coming east. Since I’m at Dulce, I shouldn’t even see that train – he’ll swing off my line at Ute Junction and head to the other division, through Placerville and Dolores. But really, it’s not my problem. I’m checking over the paperwork of a westbound peddler train standing in my station, ready to depart. Yes, it looked good. I don’t remember what pulled me away from my Dulce job. With long arms and a sneaky manner, I […]

June 4, 2023

Destroyermen 1: Into the Storm (Review)

his book should count for two reviews. I checked it out of the local library for a recent road trip. Listened to it while the miles zipped past, smiling. Decided at the end that I liked it well enough to look into the series. Fifteen books. And Norfolk’s local bookstores could come up with ten of them. Bought those and ordered the rest. just re-read the first one. So, the Destroyermen series starts with Into the Storm in the opening days of the Pacific War in World War 2, with the Japanese Navy devouring anything in its path. The USS […]

June 2, 2023

On Sheet – It’s your railroad

n last week’s On Sheet blog, I went after the misuse of timetables (you can read it HERE). And it struck a bit of a nerve with some people. Discussed it online (at length) and when I got to the club, it came up a few more times. In my defense, I was just musing about the use (and misuse) of timetables. Sure, they are necessary (an evil?) in Time Table and Train Orders. It’s the backbone of how the entire thing works. If you’ve run TT&TO, then you know about holding in a siding, orders in one hand, timetable […]

June 1, 2023

Ove vs. Otto (DOG EAR)

loved the book. I even liked the Swedish movie (even through they couldn’t quite do some of the critical scenes right (for instance, the cat was buried in a snow drift, not simply laying in hypothermia)). But the American version with Tom Hanks? Meh. BTW, I’m talking about A Man Called Ove which I reviewed Here. In a nutshell, it’s about an old man and his reasons for being angry and bitter with everyone in the world. He just wants to be left alone so that he can kill himself. But his nutty, humanistic neighbors and a battered old tomcat […]

May 29, 2023

OpsLog – TBL – 5/29/2023

ecide to run a simple one-man session this memorial day. I wanted to test some engines and a turnout or two, so I printed out a switchlist and went over to the club. Bumped into John DV there so we split the clubhouse: I ran on my layout and he ran on his. Wasn’t sure how the SW-7 was going to work. I haven’t run him in ages (usually Greg’s NW-2 stands in for our local). It was a little balky at first but eventually ran sweet. And I should have known it was going to be a good session […]

May 28, 2023

OpsLog – WVN – 5/27/2023

like newbies at ops. They do the craziest things. They are like kittens who get tangled in yarn or tear the arm off the sofa, but are still adorable. So second shift on the West Virginia Northern found me in one of my favorite jobs, the Ashbury Hostler. Usually this is a fun and interesting shift, moving engines in and out of the roundhouse while handling the traffic to Huntington. But this time I started off on the wrong foot. The prior shift had three engines in the stalls but only two cards on the pegs, so there was a […]

May 28, 2023

Mistborn (Review)

his one was a recommendation by our favorite barista Maddy, a book of high fantasy in a world so bleak it is really not to be believed. The thing is, magic works, but only after a fashion. There are eleven metals that a misting (who can use one) or mistborn (who can use them all) employ for basic spells. But here is the interesting part – the metals are swallowed by these mages, and their bellies burn them, so that’s what fuels the magic. It’s really wild and craftily done, this set of magic rules that make this fantasy world […]

May 26, 2023

On Sheet – TimeFable

lot of layout owners, when they start setting up for ops, build a timetable. Sure, it’s fun since now all those trains have numbers, go places, do things. But is it necessary? Yes, a timetable can allow you to make sure your flow works, that there are enough sidings for trains to meet, do work and whatnot. You can build sequential operations out of a timetable. And, of course, you can hang it on the wall and smile at it. But if you are running your railroad under warrants, CTC (centralized traffic control, i.e. with signals) or mother-may-I (verbal orders […]

May 25, 2023

OpsLog – LM&O – 5/24/2023

hey came from beyond high orbits, disk-like vessels that slid into the atmosphere, nudging past Chinese spy balloons, descending over an unsuspecting America. On their steel underbellies, access ports irised open and the cold muzzles of alien devices slid forth, tracking along the faint railline running across the eastern mountains. These were no deathrays, no, nor atomizers or any one of traditional alien destructo-beams. These were capture rays, used to pluck fishermen out of rowboats and yahoos out of cornfields. The aliens had come with capture on their vast, cool, unsympathetic minds. Their plans were carefully considered. The first beam […]

May 25, 2023

Big CDs, keep on turning… (DOG EAR)

ad to do that mom-snowbird thing, driving her up the North Carolina from Florida. This time, I decided to take a road trip after dropping her off. My sister Pat was gracious enough to allow me her Prius and so off I went, running up from Beach Mountain to Columbus Ohio (to pay respects to my father). And then out to Waynesburg, PA to see the site of where my model train layout is set (and covered HERE). And then back. The first and third leg were seven to eight hours each, and the crossbrace leg would be three. I […]