Allan Wright – Sidetracked

http://www.wymann.info/ShuntingPuzzles/TheatricalLayoutDesign.html

An article well worth reading on how theatre techniques of set design are now routinely or unknowingly applied to model railway layouts, big and small.

“Stage tricks for small layouts” as Frank Ellison, American model railroader, called them.

Brian Cameron, wargamer, railway modeller and reader of this Sidetracked blog, reminded me of the small challenges of micro layouts and the Inglenook Shunting Problem, solved by the late Allan Wright in 1979:

http://www.wymann.info/ShuntingPuzzles/sw-inglenook.html

With plenty more micro layouts back to the 1920s like Wakley’s 1926 layout:

http://www.wymann.info/ShuntingPuzzles/sw-inglenook.html

http://www.wymann.info/ShuntingPuzzles/

Image source: http://www.wymann.info/ShuntingPuzzles/pics/Walkley-ModelRailwayNews-1926.jpg

There, some more ideas put away for reference when I again don’t get around to building a model railway for gaming purposes (larger or more permanent than my instant battery trains in a tin – below).