Blog – Page 214 – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

March 22, 2024

On Sheet – A CTC Game

he whole thing about CTC (CentralizedTraffic Control) is pretty cool. It allows a dispatcher hundreds of miles away to set signals and turnouts, getting far more utility out of track than earlier methods. However, finding a layout that uses it is very difficult (in Florida, I know one full CTC layout and another that only sets turnouts (signals don’t do anything at this time)). So if you wish to experience it, either you find one of those layouts or you play a simulator. Which I”m including here: https://randallhook.com/railroad-dispatcher/play/ Now, keep in mind that this game was not quite completed – […]

March 24, 2024

A Highly Unlikely Scenario (Review)

his is one of my puzzled reviews. Rachel Cantor’s A Highly Unlikely Scenario was an odd little read. You can figure this by the sub-title included: “A Nestsa Pixxs Employee’s Guide to saving the World”. So Leonard is the pizza employee, and he handles call center duties in a futuristic world where fast food corporations run everything. He’s feeling a little bad about his old Jewish grandfather, whom he kinda ridiculed and chided in the last years of his life. And then, suddenly, Leonard gets a call from someone who is in prison. The calls keeps coming in – even […]

March 25, 2024

OpsLog – Tusk Hill – 3/24/2024

Dear Mother, I’m happy to relate that my employment on some nameless Midlands railroad, specifically in the area of Tusk Hill Tower, is going swimmingly. I started as a controller, and my progression since then has been been astounding. Controller (as I said) to passenger train driver, to goods driver, to shunter. I’ve put in for a wiper job now that I’ve confirmed it has nothing to do with the WC. My career has been meteoric, specifically when one considered where impact craters come from. It was quite astounding to see how seven operators could run an eight-square-foot layout, moving […]

March 28, 2024

OpsLog – LM&O – 3/27/2024

kay, to be blunt. Operations stank last night. Stank to high heaven. Literally. I was told that some unexpected guests came in and they reeked of cat piss. Members were literally coming in to complain and to steal some of my fresh air. I considered sealing the airlocks and going to internal air. I suppose that people who live near pulp mills and canneries “get used to it”. So what, you have a sand dune of unchanged cat litter in your house? Thanks Steve for prompt fumigation efforts. Every session, something new. Now that we cleared the air, what happened […]

March 28, 2024

OpsLog – CSX Taft – 3/28/2024

ith our influx of new members, it takes a little getting used to: guys showing up at sessions sleep-deprived and/or hung over. Hey, that’s youth. But Chris Strecker invited me to run on his CSX today and after the massive session at the club last night, detailed HERE, we went out with Yardmaster Zack for a late night meal. I just had a beer. But I didn’t get home until 2am and the alarm went off at 7:15am – time to head to breakfast with Chris and then the CSX Taft Yard! So yes, we both looked like used food […]

March 29, 2024

On Sheet – An English (and all over) Dispatching Game

ell, last week I turned up an interesting CTC game for you, free. This week, I found an even more involved dispatching game if you wish to test your merits and see what it’s like to dispatch when there is no model railroad about. Railway Operation Simulator is an interesting bit of freeware that you can pick up HERE. This is more like the old dispatching program that a company named Signal produced years back, where it provides a base for user railroads created with an editor. Looks kinda like this… The divisions you can control are put together by […]

April 13, 2024

Guest OpsLog – Deland – 4/6/2024

Editor/Blogger’s note: Thanks to John DeVasto for recording all that took place at the Deland Train Show while I was swanning around the Netherlands. I have to admit to having lunch at some very nice place and realizing that the crew was currently, six time zones away, assembling the layout. I felt pity. Not guilt, no, but pity. Thanks for the effort, guys, and thanks again to John for the blog! ’m writing to you all in the absence of our chief executive Scribe. For reasons unknown to us he is venturing throughout distant worlds exploring their dimly red lit […]

April 13, 2024

Netherlands – Day One – Vikings (4/1)

think you should go later. Two hours is fine, and we’re so close to the airport.” I was at my brother’s house, having ubered over to stage for the airport. We were there to pick up my mom (90 years old and traveling overseas; what could go wrong?) and also to cage a ride from my brother. “You can hang out here. It’s four and a half hours until flight-time.” Being an wormy early-bird type, I told him I’d rather waste time there than at his house. And really, there was nothing for me to do here anyway. “Okay, okay,” […]

April 14, 2024

Day Two – Close Shaves and Camelot (4/2)

e descended like a night raven out of the arctic sky, stuffed to capacity with Vikings and coming in to Reykjavík thirty minutes late. As mentioned earlier, we needed to get through passport control and over to the new flight gate, with a ninety-year-old mom in tow, in one brief hour. And we were in the very back row of our slowly unloading plane. I was already figuring out how to get a following flight after a presumed missed-connection. If I were a betting man, I wouldn’t cover this. I will mention that the man I had simmering hatred for, […]

April 15, 2024

Netherlands – Day Three – Tulips, Houseboats and No Gogh

‘ve got to say that our room here in the Westcord Fashion Hotel is one of the best I’ve ever stayed in. The light panels are a little wonky but the bed is the bomb. Like a cloud. Even while dead-eye awake at 2am with Jet Lag, I was in total comfort. And my new Zen power of falling asleep while meditating worked once again! The day before we’d picked out our careful and deliberate route, all of us buying train passes (well, everyone bought, I paid) for our various activities. The first bit was to ride Tram 1 in […]