new – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

March 19, 2020

Days of plague and the new media (DOG EAR)

o for last week’s column, I wrote something about people forcing their phone media on you. That afternoon, I met three crazy ex-work ladies at Applebees and hung out with them for about four hours. As we bid each other goodnight, little did I imagine how different everything would be a week later. Now we’ve been staying homeside for about five days. Very quiet. Been working on my games and my writing. Still doing bike rides. Even took the wife out on the tandem to a small park where we ate dinner on a bench, just to get out of […]

June 4, 2020

Old Fiction (DOG EAR)

he library has reopened for book delivery. Coming off a Black Sails binge, I decided to reread Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island. What did I notice as I finished that first chapter? I noticed how lame some of the other books I’ve recently read are. I just finished a Libertarian fiction that was, frankly, pretty damn dumb (if you now have literal heaven on earth, if the dead can return and you can visit, then why are we talking about the second amendment (with the author putting words in Jefferson’s mouth))? And then there was that yellowing space opera I […]

July 22, 2021

Introdus (DOG EAR)

kay, I’m unsure and uneasy about Facebook’s new group method. I know that this blog is really a labor of love (just as my novels were). I know both have received little notice by the mediasphere. I’m a realist. This blog is more an exercise at journaling than anything else. So when Facebook changed it’s group defaults to allow anyone to join, I just shrugged. After years of managing this place, very few people had joined. It was more a close collection of friends who wanted to see my comments about media and books. Fine. It’s like my own little […]

May 23, 2022

OpsLog – Hartford Division- 05/22/2022

n the layout, it was a beautiful crisp fall day, the type where a heavy jacket and possibly gloves allow you to enjoy the vibrant fall colors. But, of course, situated in Florida with the garage door open for access, it was hotter than the Sahara – we were sweating our balls off. But hey, that just made operating an engine with a roaring firebox a little more realistic, right? It’s nothing new – I’ve operating in a pet clinic with the smell of wet dog. I’ve run trains in countless dusty basements. We once displayed our N-trak layout in […]

February 6, 2023

OpsLog – NH – 2023/2/5

elp, they were predicting cold and rain, meteors and crust-cracking. But it turned out to be a beautiful day to run on the New Haven’s Highland Line. With the garage door open, we operated in pleasant outdoor conditions. Since it’s been a while, that worked in our favor since there was a rolling Q&A session on the driveway with host Rob Gross before the ball dropped (even your kindly reporter/dispatcher looked over a control panel that, at first, looked incomprehensible (add a few facing point locks and I’d just run screaming across the lawn)). But everyone got their paperwork, throttles, […]

March 27, 2023

OpsLog – NH – 03/26/2023

hat a difference a day makes. In this case, the “day” that existed between last op session and this one. Everyone grabbed the same jobs as last time and, really, everyone improved immensely. It might not have been apparent but from the Waterbury Tower, things were really under control. My locals were following orders and moving out of the way of the passenger trains (which we ran this time, unlike last time). Freights ran when they were supposed to. They did what they needed to do. The jobs wrapped up quickly (well, except for Zach, who decided to spend half […]

November 11, 2023

On Sheet – Sampler Platter

art of the operations game is getting to the point where the layout you operate on is burned into your brain. You know all the switching tricks. You know the how the line is dispatched and know what your authority to proceed is. Everything makes perfect sense. Everything is logical. And with this, I’ve actually known people who have learned our club system but will not go into another layout cold. Worse, they might tell the host that they’d like to “come and watch”. (No host wants this – aisle space is always limited, and we don’t need a lump […]