The four walls and the basement have finally assembled themselves into something approximating a house: The prospective homeowners came by — against the realtor’s advice — to look at the progress. They were unhappy to find that they got wet… Read More ›
As you know, the focus of this series is on constructing a suburban house on my model railroad layout, using a commercial kit. Before I continue that discussion, I need to point out that there are at least two other… Read More ›
The trouble with photos like the one in the middle of last week’s post is that there is no way to have a sense of scale when you look at it. Just knowing the scale is 1:87 isn’t really any… Read More ›
Hofstadter’s Law in action: As I continue to work on streets and roads (which I’m having difficulty making level, unlike streets and roads IRL which are always perfect), Meredith continues building our suburban house. Both are taking longer than expected,… Read More ›
ICYMI, you may want to read the first post in this series before reading this one. Right now we’re looking at what we accomplished this week; it won’t look like much, but painting tiny window frames is slow work. Why… Read More ›
Q As asked by a randomly chosen reader of this blog: When will your model railroad finally be completed? It has been “in progress” for years now! A Never. What counts is the journey, not the destination. A model railroad… Read More ›
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
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:
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 ›
You think of crime novels, you think of trains. Well, maybe not you. but many people. Murder on the Orient Express leaps to mind, of course, but there are a lot of other examples, as you can read about in… Read More ›
If you’ve ever built a model railroad structure (or a model airplane or whatever), you either build it from scratch, build it from a kit, or do some combination of the two. I am definitely not a scratch builder, so… Read More ›
When I first moved to Boston, the Red Line went from Harvard to Ashmont (red because it’s close to crimson). Then the northern portion was extended from Harvard to Alewife. It was supposed to go to Arlington and Lexington, but… Read More ›
Surely you’re joking, Mr. Aaronson. I can (just barely) believe the musical instrument claim, but a computational device??? Actually, both claims are true, hard as it is to believe. For the musical instrument, watch this short video and you’ll see… Read More ›
Learning Strategies 