robert.admin – Page 99 – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

January 13, 2020

OpsLog – Deland – 1/11-12/2020

t’s been said that this blog writes itself. So there I am in the dark outside our trainshow venue, the gate and building all locked up, a line of members (and our trailer) idling in a line while the fairgrounds tries to get the guy with the key to come back and let us in. And then we find out that another bunch of garden-potter railroaders have set up without regard to the tapelines, giving us no aisle space. I was ready to go home. But he had a good crew (thanks, guys, for that!). We talked it over with […]

January 10, 2020

OpsLog – P&WV- 1/9/2020

haven’t gotten a chance to run on the Pittsburgh and West Virginia much – it’s a retiree railroad, meaning it runs in the middle of the week. Not a problem (in future). This time, I got to come out as part of Protorails to run his heavy-industry line, sitting in the dispatchers desk (second time that day – my life is nothing but checkboxes, it seems). I really enjoy this one – its a great railroad that runs easy and slow – everyone muddling over their switching moves. The dispatcher’s panel is a pain-in-the-butt (I’m telling you, Tom – it’s […]

January 10, 2020

OpsLog – L&N – 1/9/2020

his was my second of three sessions in two days at the always-enjoyable L&N, a two railroad layout with twin dispatchers and all sorts of dirty diesels lugging grimy coal cars. And hey, I scored my favorite seat – L&N Dispatcher, the widow maker job. Fortunately I was working with Tom Wilson on his Southern Desk – he and I really work well together (when he’s not holding Edison Jct for ransom). The interesting thing about running in a Protorails event is that you’d think everyone would be at game-top abilities for the session. Not the case, it seemed. Crews […]

January 10, 2020

OpsLog – WVN – 1/8/2020

t’s one of the ops sessions for the 2020 Protorails, and I managed to get the golden ticket, a shot at running on the West Virginia Northern, a line way way over in Tampa. Worth the trip. The Komars have an absolutely amazing layout. Wide aisles (well, as wide as you’re ever going to get on a layout). Wonderfully working equipment (transition era). Stunning scenery. And a comfortable but doable session – not rushed and hectic but sequential in all the right ways. When I heard there wasn’t a dispatcher (my favorite job) I wasn’t sure how it would work […]

January 9, 2020

Reading is Believing (DOG EAR)

as on a long bike ride with a buddy. Back at his house after a number of two-wheeled adventures, I mentioned to him about Mortal Engines, a series I’d grown interested in and the megabomb movie that came from it. Not that the movie was bad. It just wasn’t quite there, not for the hundred million dollars they spent on it. So it goes. A franchise that wasn’t. But the thing was, my friend started warning me off the movie before I’d even admitted that, in large part of curiosity, I’d purchased it. And I liked it – it was […]

January 5, 2020

Babylon’s Ashes (Review)

he Expanse. A series about near-space, the space of something like 200 years in the future (the date never seems to come up). This sixth book of the sprawling series picks up the action – Earth just got slagged by three “military grade” asteroid strikes, leaving the planet dust-shrouded and home of billions of new corpses. Mars has its own problems – a large chunk of its fleet just took off on its own. Some of it popped through one of the new stargates, helling out for the unknown. The rest of it was tossed to the Free Navy, the […]

January 2, 2020

Squeamish (DOG EAR)

omething that’s been bugging me. So in Game of Thrones, the character Tyrion (as I recall) is a bit of a hideous dwarf. His eyes are lopsided, he limps along, he’s kinda grotesque. And later in the books (spoiler) he gets slashed across the face. Now he’s really messed up, with his once knobby nose is now really scrambled. I think it was actually cut open. Yeah, he was a sight to see (which made the book even more interesting since as the reader progressed, they began liking Tyrion more and more). The guy was fighting genes and family to […]

December 29, 2019

Skybreaker (Review)

he sequel to the much-enjoyed Airborn, a great steampunkish book set in an imaginary world where airships rule and the rest of the world is a dim image of our own. In this effort, Matt Cruse (our hero from the original) teams up with rich-girl Kate, this time to find the ghost ship Hyperion, an airship lost forty years ago, not in the ocean or some jungle but way up in the sky. Way up. Around 20,000 feet up, higher than most lighter-than-air craft can operate. This time Matt has teamed up with an exotic gypsy girl and a bold […]

December 22, 2019

Bowl of Heaven (Review)

ne of the best things I did at my old, late job was to find a corner table in the break room and pile a bunch of books on it, a sharing library. Oh, not many got taken (as of two months ago, I could count them on one finger). But some readers also contributed, allowing me to get a couple of free books. The only cheaper way to get this is to throw a brick through a bookshop window. And bricks (like bookshops, alas) are getting harder and harder to find. So Bowl of Heaven sees Larry Niven (from […]

December 19, 2019

OpsLog – L&MO – 12/18/2019

ast run of the year, doing it early on the club layout. And man, what a start. Bitch mode on First, we (meaning the club – I didn’t sign up) have a show this weekend. But I got pulled into the load effort which ran two hours late (with would explain the Silver Bullets in ops). So instead of dinner, I gotta beeline to the club to load modules. And when we open the trailer door, there is a big hole cut into the floor (evidently some people started doing repairs, got bored halfway through and wandered off). So it […]