As I drove along Main Street in Peabody yesterday, the first bad omen was the sight of the old-fashioned parking meters in front of the Franklin & South Manchester Railroad. Quarters only! The problem was that I no longer carry… Read More ›
Model Railroading
“The Therapeutic Value of Model Railroading”
Depression? PTSD? GeekDad, who has both, has published a fascinating short personal essay on what he calls “the therapeutic value of model railroading.” You don’t have to be a model railroader to appreciate the essay. You don’t have to be… Read More ›
Rod Stewart, Neil Young, Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, Frank Sinatra, Ringo Starr. What do they all have in common?
No, it’s not what you think. Yes, all of them are (or were) very successful and popular musical artists. But that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m referring to the fact that all of them are (or were) model railroad… Read More ›
That long-awaited model railroad update: finally a progress report!
As the estimable Barry Popik observes, “A model railroad [is] never finished. There is always something to add or to remove or to modify.” So I can’t simply postpone this report until my model railroad is finished! But “I’ve been… Read More ›
All aboard! MRR at the MoS
Go see the small but magnificent model railroad exhibit, All Aboard!, at the Museum of Science! I just got back from visiting it. This labor of love by the dedicated volunteers of the HUB Division of the National Model Railroad… Read More ›
Trains, Rock Paper Scissors, & Hannah Fry: What do these three have in common?
How can Rock Paper Scissors (RPS) have a winning strategy? It’s all just luck, isn’ it? Well, no, actually. It’s true that if your opponent plays strictly randomly, then you have no winning strategy. It’s really all just luck. But… Read More ›
Visiting all 2563 train stations in the UK!
We all know now that Dorchester’s own Maya Jonas-Silver is the new world record holder for visiting every single station on the Green, Blue, Orange and Red Lines in the shortest time; it took her 7 hours, 4 minutes, and… Read More ›
Boston in Transit (the book this time)
Five weeks ago I wrote about a BPL talk on “Boston in Transit,” i.e. the history of public transit in Boston. Now I’ve been reading the accompanying book, with the same title. What a gorgeous book it turns out to… Read More ›
A cheery song about the MBTA! (Red, blue, orange, and green)
Okay, so the lyrics aren’t perfect. That’s all right; don’t quibble. Just remember: always look on the bright side of life. No, wait, that’s John Cleese. Oh, well. Here’s the MBTA song:
Train of Thought
Some fun reading for the pandemic! Linda M. Au’s Train of Thought is a light-hearted account of a two-week cross-country train trip—well, almost cross-country, being Pittsburgh to Seattle and back again. People who don’t appreciate train travel always observe that… Read More ›
Learning Strategies 