Blog – Page 36 – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

October 28, 2012

Starwolf (Review)

These days, scifi is a pretty black and white affair, vast black space and dusty white lifeless planets. Nothing got that across for me than Ark, showing what happens when you are lucky in launching a desperate colonization effort. And there was Flying to Valhalla. Same deal. But Starwolf is old school scifi. Written as a three-book saga in the early 60’s and reprinted as a collection in the 80’s, it’s a bold splash of color. Space is stuffed with golden nebulas and Christmas-light stars. Who cares that dead worlds somehow have an atmosphere? Who cares that the party lands […]

October 28, 2012

NO UPDATES FOR A WEEK OR SO

The site will be undergoing maintenance and background work, and I’ll be occupied with other hobby efforts. This means I won’t really have any updates for the next week or so. See you when I get back!

October 31, 2012

Robert Raymond, Vampire Hunter

Months in the marking… Back around March or April, my admin told me (following my stint as a carnie barker at a work function) that she knew what I should be in our Halloween work party – Abe Lincoln, Vampire Slayer. The idea had appeal. It took some doing. First, JB and I went to see that silly movie, just to see what it was about. Then I read a book on Lincoln. Then, a month ago, I started letting my beard grow out so I’d have something to work with. And then the final weeks – renting a tailed […]

November 17, 2012

OpsLog – Tehachapi – 11/2/2012

After the long flight to San Diego, after breakfast/lunch (watching dubiously as one of our group has an omelet and beer), after naps and dinner at City Deli, it’s time to head over to the sprawling La Mesa Model Railroad Club (located in a museum basement in Balboa Park) and help set up. La Mesa is a huge place. They’ve modeled the route from Bakersfield to Mojave in 25 scale miles, running it in a simulated 1952 under Time Table and Train Order rules. It’s always a blast to run here – its like a mix of railroading and La […]

November 17, 2012

Greek to me

It’s been an eventful couple of weeks here at RobertRaymond.com. I’ve never been comfortable with the site’s lack of backup. After initiating it a few years back, I never found a backup system that seemed to work (you know the drill – you install something, follow the instructions, and suddenly you are at a screen that doesn’t match the instructions; Monopoly on a Ouija board. So I’ve been meaning to do that. It was my intention. Blah blah. Then a few weeks ago, I started getting a lot of registration activity on my board. Yay, me! Every hour, another registrant. […]

November 18, 2012

OpsLog – Tehachapi – 11/3/2012

As I mount the footplate to my Santa Fe steam engine hissing seven boxcars up from the caboose at the end of this mile-long (or so it feels) freight train, I reflect how nice it is when everyone agrees. The crew had met over the register book in the ATSF yard office, discussing our coming eastbound run from Bakersfield to Mojave. Long trains (such as ours) give me an antacid attack – we can’t really fit anywhere, not without a lot of flagging and sawing and stuff, so I’m not happy about that. To make matters worse, we’ve got an […]

November 18, 2012

OpsLog – Tehachapi – 11/4/2012

It was my train, dammit. It’d come in from Famoso late Saturday evening, my pal Jerry running the cut. I rolled out of the Bakersfield roundhouse with a puffy consolidation, ready to latch onto the back and push for all I was worth. For the next ninety minutes, we switched cars, waited, helped the yardlettes, waited, begged for clearance, and waited. The session ended with us built and aimed at the yard throat. The next morning, I showed up and got into my seat, only to get tossed out by Bob, my supposed relief. WTF? This was MY train! I […]

November 21, 2012

OpsLog – Nebraska Division – 11/11/2012

It’s good to be king (as the saying goes). And in ops, it’s good to be the dispatcher. Sure, you don’t get to actually run a train. But you do get to do something that lasts the entire session. And often is a pretty busy job. I’ve had times when it wasn’t, when I’m sitting at my desk playing Kennedy Approach or something like that because the owner didn’t come up with enough for the DS to do. Not a problem on the Nebraska Division. I’m always busy. Even with the new timetable, I was busy this time. We had […]

November 22, 2012

Thanksgiving (DOG EAR)

It’s Thanksgiving, that day we all give thanks for what we have. As families, we can give thanks for those who can share our meals. As citizens of the Great Republic, we can be thankful that we still have peace and law and order and a working society. That the lights are still on and bullets aren’t plinking off the gutters is something to be so very thankful for. But as a writer, what can I be thankful for? Well, for one, I’m thankful for my lunch setup, that our workplace cafe has a patio that looks over a lake, […]

November 25, 2012

Frank Reade (Review)

There was a time in America (the late 1800’s through the early 1900’s) when gear-ratchet, chrome-lever technology seemed to be the way of the future, when airships were around-the-corner, when the unknown areas of the globe were being fully explored, and an American could go anywhere and do anything. These feeling of manifest destiny (in it’s most absolute form) was captured by the Frank Reade dime novels that came out at that time, where the plucky (and seemingly endlessly funded) Reade family ran its own factory, producing single-run vehicles (armored cars, tanks, airships and subs) with which they could explore […]