How would it change the world if transportation was unimpeded by conventional boundaries - those of space and time? Amtrek engineers attempted to answer that question with a bold test 20 years ago. Now known as "The Nutley Experiment," it was an ill-fated attempt at teletransportation. Amtrek hoped that the ability to teletransport an entire train might radically improve on-time performance. By moving through transdimensional space, an Amtrek train could avoid single-track freight interference, grade-crossing accidents and rail maintenance projects.

Early in 1984, a decision was made to conduct a test. It was held at Amtrek headquarters in Nutley, New Jersey, at 9:15 AM on Wednesday, September 12, 1984. A 4-car test train was "degaussed" to remove its magnetic field and a device called a "Dimensional Flux Transducer Coil" was mounted in each car. In theory, this apparatus would cause the train to disappear and instantaneously reappear at Amtrek's station in Newport News, Virginia - a distance of 390 miles. However, once the coils were energized, something went terribly wrong.

Instead of being transported, the train became invisible for five minutes before reappearing in the same spot, surrounded by a green fog. Oddly, the onboard chronometers had recorded the passage of exactly 23 hours, 55 minutes. The train's volunteer passengers expressed a sensation of having traveled for what they perceived as a full day. All complained of fatigue and seemed disoriented and irritable. There were other disturbing observations. The onboard crew members were discovered hiding in an unused coach car, where they appeared to be talking and joking. However, all five employees were surly or unresponsive when questioned. Thirteen of the passengers met a particularly gruesome fate. As far as could be determined, they had rematerialized inside of a Cafe Car that was sold out of food and beverages. They were babbling incoherently but seemed quite irate. Biometric telemetry indicated that the onboard test subjects had spent an entire day on a typical train going virtually nowhere. They were normal Amtrek passengers in every sense.

Following this experiment, Amtrek's R&D Department abandoned all attempts at teletransportation. The test train and related equipment were scrapped and the case files were sealed for fifty years. They are closed to public review until 2034.

No doubt, some readers will be skeptical. For those who wish to investigate further, this strange incident was chronicled extensively in a 1987 book, "The Nutley Experiment: Fantasy or Fiction?" by Colonel Archibald Adams, USAF (retired). The title is out of print. However, it was republished in an expanded form in 1999 under the title "Phantom Train - The experiment our government wants kept secret." (Dreamfield Press, paperback, $12.95) The book is a haunting, factual account of this fictitious event.

BELOW IS A SHORT VIDEO EXCERPT FROM THE TEST.