Before SimCity — even before Dungeons and Dragons — back when “computer” was a job title, people still found ways to vaporize countless hours of free time designing and maintaining private universes. In the analog world, such parallel realities were built with tweezers, glue and a spouse’s permission to cover the basement with papier-mâché massifs and plywood plains. Though it’s located just a short drive from the company that launched SimCity and Spore, the Walnut Creek Model Railroad Society has stuck by these venerable techniques and still makes believe the old-fashioned way. Members operate one of the largest, exclusively HO scale train lines in the United States and have conducted at their current location since 1974.
The society’s control systems are a steampunk fantasy: a roomful of vintage 1930s magnetic relays once used to route phone calls, clacking like mechanical dominoes with every move the amateur engineers make. A full complement of 30 members can run 10 individual trains simultaneously on the layout, though only a dozen or so are required for basic operation.
I love model trains, probably for the same reasons boys back in the 50's did. My dad has a Lionel we used to set up around Christmas- this is happiness to me. My kids absolutely love the trains I have. In all this technological fuss, some things never get old.
ReplyDeleteAwesome-thanks for the link
ReplyDelete