selectorWouldn't one's wet tongue, or slightly salinated tongue, work even better for those of us whose tactile sense is worn with age?
This reminded me of the reason I stopped researching HDSL broadband over POTS. It appears that squirrels learned to enjoy chewing POTS telephone lines when ADSL-type modulation was applied to them -- speculation was that it gave them an enjoyable 'kick' that got them coming back for more. The biting screwed up the effective range of the low-power signal so badly that effective 'broadband' provision often shrank to blocks.
I would hate to think that model railroaders have enough effective 'species affinity' that modulated shocks to the tongue might produce similar effect. But sometimes I start to wonder...
I recall trudging home through the snow in Kirkland Lake, northern ON, back in 1963 after private lessons on playing the bagpipe. This was in early October, but the winter had already put its severe bite on the region. I recall it being so cold it actually 'smelled'. On a whim, meself but a young sprite, I touched my tongue to the metal flange at the end of my chanter. I recall telling myself, about two minutes later, that it wasn't an experience I was bound to repeat.