The Cartoon I remember may not have even been in a Rail orientated publication. It showed two women sat in a domestic living room while between them a cardigan wearing man was knelt on the floor with his head out of sight down a small drainsized opening. One hand was on a controller with a cable also disappearing down the hole. The caption was just a one liner from one woman to the other "He's modelling the London Underground"
Not something I have really looked into but doesn't the Model aircraft hobby have some sophisticated gear now? Possibly a still a little large for smaller scales but many seem to be going to O gauge or larger compared to a few years back. I'm long out of touch with what frequencies are allowed for model aviation purposes though and it may be that equipment for a model plane would not be correct for a land based model.
G.Harman