What is an Inglenook...?

I have been asked the question of 'What is an Inglenook ?'

The original concept of the Inglenook was built in England in 1926 by A.R. Walkley, and then recreated by Alan Wright in the 1980s as a shunting/switching puzzle. It consists of a specific track plan in the shape of a tuning fork. Basically it is a lead in track with three sidings.

The inglenook track plan is designed to fit on a baseboard of 12" x 48". This includes the lead in track and all sidings. The sidings are of two distinct lengths, with one siding holding five wagons and the other two sidings holding three wagons. The lead in track holds one locomotive and three wagons. This is described as a 5-3-3 Inglenook.

12" x 48" 5-3-3 Inglenook.

The idea behind the shunting/switching layout is to build a train of five wagons out of eight on the layout (randomly placed) to a particular consist in a certain order. This can be done with the use of cards with either a picture of the wagon and or a basic description of the wagon and another set of cards with the destination. The destination could be the position in the train or a particular place on the layout.

The rules of the puzzle is to shunt/switch wagons to their final position only using the locomotive and available space in the individual sidings.

For example...

Start with eight randomly placed wagons and a locomotive...

Shuffle the cards (picture or description) and arranged five cards along the longest siding.

The completed switching shows the five individual wagons in a particular order on the long siding (spur) above the cards.

This game of shunting/switching can go on for quite some time as the next move is to shuffle the cards again and lay back out onto the long siding and build that consist of wagons...

Another question I have been asked is : 'What is a back to back Inglenook ?'

Quite simply it is two Inglenooks joined together, either from the lead in track or by one of the sidings. The following diagrams show the variation of what is possible. This variation is larger than the 12" x 48" design shown above.

The End to End Inglenook : 12" x 96"

Back to Back Inglenook : 14" x 84"

Back to Back Curved Inglenook : 14" x 78"

Now, going back to the original design of the Inglenook, they don't have to be of the 5-3-3 design. Micro-nooks are an alternative and it can be built as 3-2-2, or even 2-1-1.

If you model North American (or Australian), you possibly do not have four wheel wagons and prefer to run with 40' or 50' reefers, tankers, flat wagons, gondolas etc. The track plan can still be designed to fit the 5-3-3 wagon allocation, the only difference is the size of the baseboard.

I have built a few Inglenook based layouts in British, US and Australian outline. Here are a few pics of what can be achieved on various sized baseboards.

Linden Ford, an Inglenook on a curve, British outline...

Jay Dubyew North Yard : North American outline

Uses an external fiddle yard/sector plate for train storage, but all shunting/switching movements are done on the scenic section.

Tomlins Creek : Australian (New South Wales) outline...

So, hopefully this thread has described the humble Inglenook and how it can be manipulated to suit your own needs. It is amazing how a little layout like these above can be quite fun to operate, although at times a challenge.

Cheers, Gary.