komars – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

August 16, 2023

OpsLog – WVN – 8/12/2023

t was a great day on the WVN – a group of three N-Trakers (myself, Kyle and Zack) rode over to Tampa and the wife tagged along (she usually won’t run trains except at the FEC but she has run once before at the West Virginia Northern and the scenery and realistic engine control just makes that railroad the cat’s pajamas so she’ll play). And that we had two other engineers filling out the roster whom I’ve run with before (and know they are good), we had all the makings of a great session. And so that’s what we did. […]

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, […]

March 14, 2024

OpsLog – WVN – 3/9/2024

fter a good West Virginia Northern ops session with my friends Jeff and Kyle, we’re rolling home contentedly (from Tampa to Orlando by way of Atlanta, it seems). And while we’re all grinning like smug Buddhas, someone asks, “So, what are you going to blog about, Robert? Nothing really went wrong.” Well, there are moments. One of my favorites was when I was working Ashbury West End and Kyle was Hostler, lugging a massive steam Saturn V out of the roundhouse and onto the turntable, destined for an outbound train. The Keystone coal train had just come in, five hoppers […]

December 17, 2024

OpsLog – WVN – 12/13/2024

‘m down in a dark low place, a plywood and benchwork cavern under the hills between Darby and Elkview, looking for reefer cars off my Pacific Fruit Express run which was turned into tossed salad by a miss-thrown turnout. Several cars were derailed in the tunnel and one had hit the floor. On my knees in the dusty dark, it was then that I saw it. Tucked in the corner opposite me, under the town of Harris, the dull ivory of ancient bones amid a scattering of Indian war bonnets, rusting tomahawks and flint arrowheads. It was an Indian burial […]

April 17, 2025

OpsLog – WVN – 4/12/2025

‘ve read a lot of books about World War One aviation, and the one thing that really killed early aviators (especially those with rotary engines) was spins. If they stalled and tipped into one, chances were they’d spin all the way to the ground. And that would be that. The reason I mention this was that, while running the Ashbury hostler job (moving engines in a turntabled engine house), I put a huge steam engine into a spin. Pushed up against the fascia by a knot of people that had formed (because of elsewhere trains doing elsewhere jobs, all in […]

November 19, 2025

OpsLog – WVN – 11/8/2025

n fantasy novels (and some religions), great events are triggered following prophetic signs in the sky. And so there I was, waiting at the clubhouse’s grassy parking lot for Kyle for a ride out to the Komar’s in Tampa for their hosting of the West Virginia Northern, looking up to see a Chinese rocket booster slowly burning up as it crossed the sky, glowing white and emerald, dropping away to the east. So that’s a differing sort of start at least. So we three wise men (myself, Kyle and Bruce) journeyed across the desolation of Interstate 4, making out way […]