The train / flat wheels / Landing light tale has been around since the 30’s.
Especially during WW2 in Canada and The USA with all those T-6s, Cessna Cranes and Beech Expeditors and other training aircraft flying around overhead flat deserts and prairies at night with lots of nice busy straight tracks crisscrossing the landscape with trains rushing the troops and tools of war to various seaports. A target rich environment for adventuresome young aviators.
Bob Stevens cartoon below. From his great book …”There I Was…..”
