Interesting. I'm not familiar with the film and, assuming it was a book not familiar with that either. The trailer configuration was very common in that era for delivering petrol to garages across the country, though; a very familiar sight. I suspect they and the air forces' fuel bowsers have common lineage.

As to the railroad, an unexpected benefit has been our operations group that meets here every other month. The railroad itself and the variety of scenarios has so-far kept interest up such that I have more regular operators than I dreamed we would.

I started out with eight, figuring that crowd would naturally distill down to maybe four regulars, which would have been perfectly fine. Instead, the group has grown to eleven, so a full and boisterous house is pretty well assured every session. That has been a lot of fun!