Boston’s rich history of public transit deserves your attention if you live in, work in, or have visited The Hub. That’s short for “Hub of the Universe,” in case you missed the memo. Boston is nothing if not proud of… Read More ›
Model Railroading
Model Citizens
Are you a model citizen? If you subscribe to Amazon Prime (and who doesn’t, these days?), go watch their excellent new video titled Model Citizens. Yes, you guessed it, it’s all about model railroaders: who we are, what we do, why we… Read More ›
Model trains are not cat toys!!!
You can skip to 1:20 if you’re impatient:
Bay State Model Railroad Museum Open House
So you’ve never heard of the Bay State Model Railroad Museum? Well, it exists, even if you haven’t heard of it. It’s very small — but yes, it does exist and seems to be thriving, right in the heart of… Read More ›
The huge Amherst Railway Society Railroad Hobby Show
This year’s Amherst Railway Society Railroad Hobby Show was different from previous years’ — not because the exhibits were significantly different (they weren’t) nor because it was held in West Springfield rather than Amherst (that’s been true for years). It… Read More ›
Murder on the Toy Town Express
Toy Town is East Aurora, NY. Although you probably already knew that, I didn’t know it until I read Barbara Early’s Murder on the Toy Town Express. Don’t confuse this novel with the famous murder on that other express. You can tell… Read More ›
Greenberg Model Railroad Show
There were some interesting items at this weekend’s Greenberg Model Railroad Show in Wilmington… But ultimately it was disappointing. The big problem was the ratio of layouts to vendors: it was much too small, maybe 20% layouts and some of… Read More ›
Jed Sutter
I recently attended a small but wonderful exhibit of the paintings of the distinguished local artist Jed Sutter. Reflections is probably my favorite. I love the representation of the reflection, of course (and not just because it’s a geometric concept), but… Read More ›
A Raspberry Pi class
This time the student teaches the teacher! I had a great time yesterday at MakeIt Labs in Nashua, participating in a four-hour class taught by a former student of mine, Johnathan Vail, who was in two or three courses of… Read More ›
Bay State Model Railroad Museum Spring Model Train Show
Wow! Look at that title: a noun phrase consisting of nine consecutive nouns! Maybe the show should be called Buchtstaatsmodelleisenbahnmuseumsfrühlingsmodellzugshow. On second thought, maybe not. OK, enough fooling around with German. Let’s get back to the show itself, which was… Read More ›
Amherst Railway Society Railroad Hobby Show
I suppose it would be Amhersteisenbahngesellschafteisenbahnhobbyausstellung if you spoke German, but fortunately we don’t have to do that. What we did have to do was go to West Springfield, not Amherst, since this annual show had outgrown all available facilities… Read More ›
Murder to Scale
A mystery novel in a model railroading setting? Who could resist? Not I! Murder to Scale, by Debra B. Schiff “with” Mike Blumensaadt, is a good enough story in which the setting plays a major role, not just a background part. When… Read More ›
MR@MoS
Disappointing. That’s all I can say. The Museum of Science had announced a special one-day members-only preview of their new model railroad exhibit, so of course I had to go. “What does it have to do with science?” asked Barbara…. Read More ›
When will the two robots meet?
The other day I read an intriguing article in the New York Times about a simulation of two robots moving on model train tracks at the National Museum of Mathematics. Will they ever meet? And why are the robots beavers, when… Read More ›
Rails across Canada?
For the second time, Barbara and I are planning to take the train from Boston to Chicago this April to visit the in-laws…and to enjoy the journey, of course. But that’s less than half the distance across the continent. At… Read More ›
Connecticut
October is always a good month for traveling within New England, and this past weekend (a long weekend!) was no exception. Barbara agreed to a mini-vacation that focused on railroad museums in Connecticut, so off we went, intending to visit four… Read More ›
Meerkats, the Canadian Pacific Railway, coral reefs, and the Dead Sea scrolls
What do meerkats, the Canadian Pacific, coral reefs, and the Dead Sea scrolls all have in common? Maybe I should have added a fifth item, so we could play “one of these things is not like the others.” But that’s… Read More ›
Transit maps TED talk!
I suppose it’s possible that you don’t share my passion for transit maps. That might be hard to believe, but I admit that it’s possible. Whether you love transit maps or not, you still need to watch Aris Ventikidis’s first-rate (and… Read More ›
South Station model railroad exhibit
Fortunately I decided to take the T, so I didn’t have to figure out where to park in the vicinity of South Station, which is featuring a brand-new model railroad exhibit this winter. Actually, they’re toy trains, not model trains,… Read More ›
Bay State Model Railroad Museum
A few weeks ago I returned to the oddly named Bay State Model Railroad Museum for its excellent Open House. The reason I say it’s oddly named is that it’s not a museum in the conventional sense; it’s really the headquarters… Read More ›
Learning Strategies 