Blog – Page 209 – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

December 23, 2023

OpsLog – CSX Taft – 12/22/2023

he good thing about microlayouts (if you consider a 3×8 a “micro”) is that a session can be set up and hosted in quick order. So that’s what my friend Chris did – he asked me if on Thursday if we wanted to run on Friday and I said (of course) yes (is there any other answer?). And run we did. I might have mentioned this before, but Chris has a great small layout. Essentially there are four trains each day between Jacksonville and Miami. Each train takes six laps to complete a run. Each lap represents a different Florida […]

December 24, 2023

Rail Fiction Classics (Review)

swear I borrowed this years ago because when a downsizing friend dumped it in front of me, I snatched it up. So let’s get to it – Rail Fiction Classics carries three sections, as follows: The Nerve of Foley and Other Railroad Stories by Frank Spearman in 1900: Written in the time and phrase of the turn of the last century, these quick tales pretty much cover the same storyline; a railroad in crisis (strike, excess cargo, winter storms) and the frantically brave engineers who have to fight these impediments to get their train to its destination (or die, occasionally, […]

December 28, 2023

Best of 2023 (DOG EAR)

nce again, my favorite books of the year for 2023. Unlike prior years, I’ll post these in reverse order of enjoyment, meaning the top pick is at the end, and we’ll build up to it. So here we go: Top Books I Read in 2023! Number 5: Norse Mythology: A great book from Neil Gaiman that looks at the Norse gods and their struggles in plain (and enjoyable) English. A great read about great struggles, and the end-of-the-world was quite touching. Number 4: Never Surrender: The story of Churchill and the struggles he faces as the forces of fascism assembled […]

December 28, 2023

OpsLog – LM&O – 12/27/2023

o this is a transcript (sort of) of a call between the dispatcher and 415, an empty hopper run out of Calypso for Carbon Hill. DS: Ready to copy? 415: Ready. DS: Okay, Warrant 281 to 414 at RedRock. Checkbox 1: Previous warrant is void. Checkbox 2: Proceed to Weirton. Checkbox 3: Proceed on Main Track #2. I have three checkboxes. 415: (Repeats orders verbatim) DS: (Pause). Okay, you know which track is track 2, right? 415: Yes, I know. DS: (Concerned) It’s the outer loop in Pittsburgh. 415: Yes, I understand. DS: (Nagging) There is a fake signal bridge […]

December 30, 2023

OpsLog – TBL – 12/30/2023

eally, it was a terrible solo effort on the Tuscarora today. I didn’t have ANY tower malfunctions. And I didn’t have ANY derailments. Horrible. See, I figured that before I worked scenery (and since I had an entire Saturday afternoon at the club) I’d run lever testing and try to get it to fail. After about twenty fruitless minutes of this, I figured I should just run a session. At first I was just going to randomize cars but then I found an unused switchlist in the back and made it into an honest to goodness session. And I ran […]

December 31, 2023

The Master and Margarita (Review)

he Master and Margarita, from the Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov, is an odd birthday present to get. In fact, outside of the smiling black cat on the cover (with a weird forked tongue), I didn’t “get” why my wife gave this to me as a present. I mean, outside of Anna Karenina (which I read so long ago it isn’t even on my book review list), I don’t do much Russian Literature. Then my wife reminded me – this was the book Sonja was reading when Ove first met her (from A Man Called Ove). Her eyes sparkled when she […]

January 5, 2024

OpsLog – WVN – 1/3/2024

ith Protorails in town, I got invites to help run the three local layouts, the first being the beautiful West Virginia Northern (way, way, way over in Tampa). Since they needed two boomers, I took Chris Strecker with me (since he is both a railroader and game enthusiast, meaning he can pick up operating rules/instructions quickly). We had a pretty good drive over (given we got two weekday rush hours) and at my goading we took Ashbury west end (he as the yard switcher and me on my beloved hostler job). And to Chris’ credit, we kept it busy (hostler, […]

January 5, 2024

OpsLog – VSW – 1/4/2024

om Wilson could easily play the role of Father Christmas with his warm grin and twinkling eyes. So that is why we find him in an huge stuffed easy chair before a roaring fire. In his lap is a large book. “Tonight, Children,” he says with an smile so infectious, it could be an STD in The Villages, “I shall read you a story. It is called, The Tale of the Two Dispatchers.” So there once was a land with two dispatchers, the Virginia Southwestern. The Southern dispatcher ran a line staffed with merry country people who ran their trains […]

January 6, 2024

OpsLog – P&WV – 1/4/2024

his was my third ops session in the two days of protorails – I’d been invited in to round out the crews and provide dispatching. So, a long day, starting with an accident that had me sitting in traffic for over an hour, then a full day at the VSW, then a run over to Tom Wilson’s Pittsburgh & West Virginia (or is it “East Virginia”? Tom Wilson’s geographic directions are always so confusing). Then a heavy dinner (the Wilsons made sure we were fed). And after all that, I settled in the back room with my phone, my train […]

January 7, 2024

ImPossible Histories (Review)

eah, I’ve read Turtledove. And Dick. And all the famous alternate historical fictions. Even tried my hand with Early ReTyrement. Historical fictions can be fun to read and even to contemplate. But then comes Im-Possibe Histories by Hal Johnson. On one hand, this book about ways the world could change was well-thought out. in others, it was a laf-riot. Johnston has a witty sense of humor that he sprinkles across interesting ways that history might have changed if something had gone elseways. Some of them are far reaching in fallouts one couldn’t see coming. Some are funny and obviously dead ends […]