I'm Easily Amused!

[CBQ_Guy]

Thought this was kinda neat.

We just got some new TV channels added by the cable company. One of them was the Sci-Fi channel. I've been a fan of the genre since I was a kid (at least the good stuff).

So this morning I put it on to see what's on there and I catch the beginning of an episode of the old series, The Twilight Zone. I used to watch this as a kid in the 1960's and it was a very good program. So I started watching and there is this man and woman who wake up in a room in a house and don't know where they are or how they got there. All they can recall is that they were out partying the night before and had too much to drink.

During the course of the program they discover that they seem to be the only people in the town and that everything looks real but is really fake. They thought they came across a tame squirrel sitting on a low tree branch but when the lady tried petting it, it fell to the ground and it turned out it was stuffed. The man mentioned the place was creepy because there wasn't even the sound of anything to hear, including birds outside. At one point he leaned against a tree and it fell over. Then he lit a cigarette and tossed the match onto the grass. The grass immediately caught on fire and he stomped it out. It looked odd where the grass had burned so the man bent over to check it out and said to the woman it looked like papier mache. Then he said, where the heck are we. My reply was, "You're on my layout!"

Finally they heard a train whistle and said good, we'll get on the train and leave this weird place. So they found the train and hopped on one of the passenger cars. Again, they were the only people but they were just glad to finally be able to get out of there. The train started pulling out of the station and you could see the name of the town on the side of the depot - Centerville. They talked a little bit and then they could feel the train slowing down, so they looked out the window to see where they were pulling into and the sign on the depot came into view and read -- Centerville! The man freaked out and said it was like they had just gone in a big circle.

The next idea he had was to go out onto the road and just keep walking. So they walked down the street a bit and they heard the sound of a child giggling. I should mention here that they had heard this giggling on occasion during their experience but could never find the source. Suddently you see a shadow falling over the two people and they both cringe in terror and squat down on the ground.

The next shot shows a kid opening his hand and a tiny, HO size couple are in the palm. It is the man and woman! Then the kids mom comes in and says, "Be careful with your new pets, dear. Daddy brought them all the way from Earth." So the kid goes to put them back down and you see an HO scale train layout with scenery coming closer to the descending hand. This was way COOL to me!

And now you understand why I picked the subject name I did!

[Anonymous]

Slightly off-topic but vaguely related,
My dad did a couple of "modified" black and white photos of himself "posed" in some of his OO scale GWR rolling stock back in the '70s - no digital editing then so it involved overlaying negatives in a photo enlarger. Looked very convincing, and I intend to have a go at doing something similar myself, as soon as I can get the darkroom set up again!

I guess the major problem with ending up in HO scale would be that our locos don't have working cab controls, so driving them wouldn't be an option. On the plus side, food would become considerably cheaper (think how long a loaf of 1:1 bread would last a HO scale person!)

[Anonymous]

I heard about one episode of Twilight Zone where these squirrels attacked people.
Kind of like a rodent version of The Birds.

I'll add to railroading Brit's HO sized life:

Every time a piece of dust floated by, it would be like swooping out of the way of an eagle.

"Watch out, here he comes with the shop vac!"

When youre that small, the voltage used on a layout would probably be like getting struck with lightning.

[dknelson]

Remember the scene in "The Day the Earth Stood Still" The little boy was playing with his Lionel trains and the space alien (Micheal Renne ?) says something like "Someday Jimmy I will tell you about trains that run without tracks."
Gort!
Dave Nelson

[Anonymous]

Thanks for sharing this with us! Someone had mentioned this episode before in the Classic Toy Trains forums. Out of curiousity, what kind of a train was running on the layout in the show?

Also, I found this picture showing the layout from The Day The Earth Stood Still on the net. I haven't actually seen the film myself, though.

[vsmith]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Sask_Tinplater

Thanks for sharing this with us! Someone had mentioned this episode before in the Classic Toy Trains forums. Out of curiousity, what kind of a train was running on the layout in the show?

Also, I found this picture showing the layout from The Day The Earth Stood Still on the net. I haven't actually seen the film myself, though.

That looks EXACTLY like the MARX train set I had as a kid, same oval, same switch, same station, even the caboose looks the same. It came as a complete set.

[Anonymous]

I remember seeing the Twilight Zone episode discussed above and I have seen The Day The Earch Stood Still, as well. Fun stuff.

Gort! Nick Barrada Neckto

[Anonymous]

Opps! I think that should be Gort! Klattu nick barada neckto

[Anonymous]

The episode was "Stopover in a Small Town."

Here's the layout:

[easyaces]

Better have your ticket validated for that "Long Black Train"! [;)]

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by vsmith

QUOTE: Originally posted by Sask_Tinplater

Thanks for sharing this with us! Someone had mentioned this episode before in the Classic Toy Trains forums. Out of curiousity, what kind of a train was running on the layout in the show?

Also, I found this picture showing the layout from The Day The Earth Stood Still on the net. I haven't actually seen the film myself, though.

That looks EXACTLY like the MARX train set I had as a kid, same oval, same switch, same station, even the caboose looks the same. It came as a complete set.

Well, the set from The Day The Earth Stood Stil is definetly Lionel, not Marx, but I bet I know what Marx set you had. In the late 60's/early 70's Marx made a set called the "Big Rail Work Train". There were both Santa Fe and Penn Central versions of it (yes, with a PC steam engine). The PC is the more common set. Here are links to some on ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3188410589&category=19147
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3188022903&category=19147 (the cattle car is an ad-on in this set).

[CBQ_Guy]

QUOTE: Originally posted by dknelson

Remember the scene in "The Day the Earth Stood Still" The little boy was playing with his Lionel trains and the space alien (Micheal Renne ?) says something like "Someday Jimmy I will tell you about trains that run without tracks."
Gort!
Dave Nelson

Yeah, they're called triple van trailers![:D]

[CBQ_Guy]

The Day The Earth Stood Still is a pretty good, old time sci-fi flick. I believe it came out in 1953.

Where are you getting these screen capture/movie stills from?

I've been wanting to get one from the first Addams Family movie where Gomez is running the trains. He has both hands on the throttle, I believe a cigar in his mouth, and an almost maniacal look on his face. I poked around online once but couldn't come close.

[Anonymous]

I got the picture from http://www.toytrainrevue.com/hollywd.htm where there is a list of movies that have Lionel trains featured in them. There are a few other pictures and The Addams Family is mentioned, but unfortunately there is no picture of Gomez. However, in an issue of Classic Toy Trains there is a very good picture showing Gomez with his hands on a ZW tranformer with a cigar in his mouth and the look you describe. I would be happy to scan it and e-mail it to you if you like. You can e-mail me at [e-mail] .