robert.admin – Page 82 – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

April 21, 2019

OpsLog – FEC – 4/20/2019

he Orlando Boys really shined today on the Florida East Coast RR. Bob and I got demerits (me for dropping the wrong car at a siding, him for running over a turnout the wrong way). And John, he didn’t get a demerit – he got summery execution for the horror of what happened up in Frontenac (we won’t speak of it. It involved sixteen coal hoppers, a lot of industrial track and a whole bunch of time). I still think I got the short end of it. If anything, the shipper should be happy. He was getting ready to ship […]

April 18, 2019

A new beginning (DOG EAR)

ou might have noticed (please, someone notice) that my site has been pretty quiet as of late. The reason for this was my www-based ancient Joomla webpage had been hacked (again). It first came to my attention when the astronomy site booted off one of my blogs, claiming I had malware. But then my wife chirped up, saying she’d seen it too. Maybe you did – the whole survey results thing you’d first click through via my links? Once I mentioned this, everyone I knew said, “Yes, I thought that was something you did.” Please, I’d rather mug you with […]

April 14, 2019

OpsLog – WBRR – 4/13/2019

‘m usually a pretty outgoing person – lost a few jobs by shooting my mouth off. Very, very noisy, a real chatty Cathy. At the Western Bay, I’m in charge of the center aisle. Everything that goes on there goes through me. I tell the dispatcher what’s going on. I relay his orders to the crews. At one point, when 242 was fussing around in the Placerville Jct. lead and I heard on the wire that a mail train was coming west, I advised the dispatcher to advance him to Dolores (one of my stations) while my alter-ego at the […]

April 14, 2019

ShowLog – Deland – 4/6/2019

ight… nine… ten…” My black shoes pace across the cold concrete floor. It’s seven in the morning and I’m an hour from home and bed. “Eleven… twelve… thirteen.” Blue tape. All stop. I look around the quiet convention center. Our promised twenty-two feet of width is actually thirteen. We’ve been bungled by nine-feet. Not so much, but its further then a man can reach. It’s the distance the condemned falls through the hangman’s trap door. And it’s a full module-and-a-half of distance we can’t afford to lose. Steve, our module engineer, comes in. I nod to him. “Problem here.” And […]

April 14, 2019

OpsLog – LMO – 3/27/2019

’m hosting our daily meeting. One of our developers, a child thirty years my junior, is unhappy with the direction my team is now going. So he’s sniping at me, little schoolyard comments. I stop the meeting. “If you have something to say, let’s hear it,” I let him run his mouth a bit. “You done? Fine.” Then I go back to my agenda. He, in turn, runs off to cry at the manager, only to find out that, woops, he was wrong all along. That was my day job. In my real-life job, I’m at the throttle of a […]

April 14, 2019

OpsLog – FEC – 3/16/2019

ne of the stunning things about Ken Farnham’s FEC layout is how busy the main yard is. San Diego’s La Mesa club might have three to five engines moving across their Bakersfield Yard (and it’s, I dunno, 150 feet long?). But Ken’s is inside a small shed with the yardmaster, the classification crew, the trim operator, the hostler all working, even with one or two mainline trains transitioning the limits. The yard throat is a happening place. Today what made it cool for me was that I was working classification, breaking down arrivals, and the next track over wife JB […]

March 21, 2019

Dog Ear (DOG EAR)

s there an echo in here? No, actually, this blog is about… dog earring. Just noticed it today – I’m reading an adventure yard from Douglas Preston, Tyrannosaur Canyon. The thing is, if you open the cover, you’ll see the Maya Books and Music pencil notification in the front – yeah, I bought it used, $3.50. I love Maya’s, a groovy little bookshop in Sanford, and will generally pick up a couple of covers just to help support them. So this thing is a foster book. Tonight, I was sitting on the back porch with a glass of wine, getting […]

March 21, 2019

Markdown (DOG EAR)

Priced to move! Was $2.99, now 99 cents! Bargain prices! These sound like things Mason Trellis might say in moving Egyptian Grain in Early ReTyrement. Well, in this case, life imitates art. I’ve been thinking that a couple of bucks was probably too much for my eBook, especially two years (has it been this long?) since it was posted up on Kindle and Nook. I’ve heard of people who give their books away for free (to get following) or jack their prices around (to get ranking). I don’t know how to do this – I’m a writer (meaning I think […]

March 19, 2019

Trip Reports – places we’ve been

These are just some of the places we’ve been. Note that each link will create a new window – just close it when you are done and you’ll still have this original page for further exploration. Enjoy! Japan (Oct 6-16, 2018) Japan – Day Zero – Real worries Japan – Day One – Transpacific Japan – Day Two – Anime and Altitude Japan – Day Three – Towers and Clocks Japan – Day Four – Shrines and Temples Japan – Day Five – Mt Cloverfield Japan – Day Six – Cloverfield unmasked and shopping Japan – Day Seven – A thousand […]

March 10, 2019

Bluff (Guest Review)

ot every magician is a Houdini or David Copperfield, but with lots of practice and a bit of misdirection some can be great. It all starts with “Pick a card.” From there this enjoyable tale of a not particularly successful female magician twists and turns. Get ready to read about magic tricks and card cheats – throwing cards, cutting cards, controlling cards, false deals, dealing from the bottom, and even rigged cuts. Natalie Webb was a child protege winning the World of Magic competition for close up magic (sleight of hand with common objects) when only eighteen. Then something happened […]