Inglenook Sidings Shunting Puzzle

Although the track layouts share certain similarities, Alan Wright - inventor of the Inglenook Sidings shunting puzzle as we know it - pointed out to me in a personal communication in 2001 that he had never heard of Walkley or his work when he built his first small railway, the Wright Lines, in the early 1950s. It was on this small layout (consisiting of a "dented" oval and two sidings) that Wright first had the idea of using a five wagon train on the main line and three wagons in the sidings. The Wright Lines layout was developed over a couple of years, was described and illustrated in the Railway Modeller in 1958, and made a couple of appearances at exhibitions in the North of England.

The actual way Inglenook Sidings came into being is quite amusing and, in Alan Wright's own words, took place as follows:

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