Many years ago I found an article in a stack of Model Railroader magazines that belonged to my uncle. It was a fiction piece about an old steam loco engineer, probably retired or pushed out by modern diesel engines. He found this old warehouse that contained a steam locomotive cab just like the one he used to run. Nearby was a model railroad layout with the same type of steam loco. He discovered that he could run the loco on the layout with the steam cab controls, complete with all the sounds, the steam, the vibration, everything. He spent several happy hours there that day. He went back the next day and found no trace of the loco cab, the layout, anything, no sign any of it had ever been there. It’s been many years and some of the details may not be right, but that was the jist of the story. I would greatly appreciate it if anyone could steer me in the right direction to find this article again. It would have been from the sixties or early seventies. Thanks for any help I could get!
Charley1957:
I would suggest that you start by clicking on the ‘Resources’ tab on the top line to the right of center. The drop down menu will offer you a magazine index. It will take a little time but you can search through the table of contents for each issue published during the 60’s and 70’s and more.
If you find the story you are looking for, then you might be able to purchase an actual copy of the magazine from MR.
The second route you could take is to contact MR directly and ask if anyone remembers the article.
The third route would be to purchase a copy of the DVD set that chronicles 75 years of MR publications. That is initially the more costly option, but I believe that you would get your money’s worth because you would then have access to all the articles published between 1934 and 2009. I certainly enjoy my set!
What’s really bugging me right now is I am certain I have seen the story to which you refer in a more recent publication, likely as a reprint, but I can’t remember when or where. Maybe its just my brain trying to fill in the huge gaps that it suffers from with a little deja-vue.
Anyhow, why not ask the MR staff? Or, hopefully you will get lucky with a forum member who can actually remember details, unlike me![(-D]
Dave
I would hazard a guess that the article is one of MR’s annual April Fool’s pieces. This would make the search a lot easier, being confined to only the April issues.
Fred W
One article with that sort of theme is “A Hobbyist’s Dream” by Gary Hallock in the September 1976 MR.
I seem to recall anothr that was almost identical, but I can;t find it.
–Randy
There was also one in the late 80’s, sort of another “Where is the Hobby Heading” that talked about a similar theme using the then new technology of virtual reality.