I am not one that gets into practical jokes because they often go amiss, but…
I had a friend at the club who was complaining about how expensive the BLI stock cars with sound were. I was puzzled because I had just seen them on sale for $49. When I mentioned it, he asked if I would order him one. So I did. It arrived a short time later. So there it was sitting around the house waiting to be delivered. Well for some reason I got to thinking about a bottle I had in the basment called “Olfactory Airs #716 Live Cattle, Manure”. My first thought was just to stink up the car a bit. I mentioned it to my wife, who thought it would be hilarious. I had her call his wife who also thought it would be funny. As I was preparing the scent (it goes on a dense cork time-dispursal material), I got to thinking about making it it a bit more of a gag. Since the car came with a single sheet instruction guide. I completely retyped the guide replacing every place it said “sound” with “sound and scent”. I put the “new” instructions in the box and resealed it.
I presented the car to him at that nights operating session and as expected he immediately opened it up to run. While he was opening it, I leaned over to a couple other club members and briefed them on what was up, so they could be in on the joke too. Well, fortunately he found the instruction sheet first, was fascinated, and immediately started telling everyone that it not only has sound but scent! He and another member, not yet in on the joke, began to speculate on how the scent worked. As expected he put the car on the track and we ran it around a while. Then as expected he began messing around with the controls to increase the volume and turn on the scent. It didn’t work too well but he did manage to turn the sound totally off. Then the fun began. When he put the car away, I
The “Olfactory Airs” were marketed to the Model Railroad community as enhancements to the layout. That must have been in the 1979-1985 time period. There were 50 different fragrances made. I wish I had a whole set. I have “saw dust”, “buring coal”, “diesel oil”, ummm “lemon”, “manure” (obviously), and “dirt”. There was a fragrance made for any industry or scene one could imagine. I used to add the “burning coal” to smoke fluid, but now they have started making smoke fluid with it built in.
Actually, now that you mention it, the next day my wife made a batch of “no bake” cookies for me to take to the show. She had carefully shaped them into the appearance of small cow chips.
I’ve got one of those BLI stock cars myself, and when I happen to run it in a train for people, it gets a HUGE response. Best one was from my sister’s son: “I’m not standing too close to THAT one!”
Dang, and I threw all my Olfactory Smells away, about ten years ago. Should have had my head examined, LOL!
I think this product deserves a review in MR. How about writing one up? Include a graph like “Odor Detection Distance vs. CV42 Odor Intensity Setting” or something like that. Photograph the car with the “included” clothespin for your nose.