My HO layout is based on the 8 car version of the Inglenook Sidings Puzzle. I normally run it with 7 freight cars and a caboose. The whole thing fits on a 1 x 6 foot shelf and includes three industries, a team track, and an enginehouse. I've also written a computer program to find solutions to any version of the puzzle, which is much more computer intensive than you might think at first. A professor of computer science in London, Simon Blackburn, has written a mathematical paper on the puzzle which proves the existence of solutions to all starting configurations. Thanks for highlighting this puzzle and cheers from Wisconsin!.

The Inglenook is probably the best layout for anyone wanting to get started in model railways IMO. You don't need a lot of space, you don't need to buy a lot of stuff, the wiring is as simple as it gets and there's lots of operational potential. It works for almost any place or period and you can adapt it in all sorts of ways.

Mike , your seemingly endless enthusiasm for minimalist shunting set-ups serviced by dinky locos & tiny wagons never ceases to amaze & inspire me . 👍

Watched to the end and enjoy your videos as your like me just having fun with big boys toys

That's great I've shunted hundreds of 16ton mineral wagons when working at Shirebrook West on BR, I now shunt lego wagons not so messy and cold at times.

Love inglenook layouts but lol I’m here shouting at you lol points wrong, to many wagons on that track lol etc etc keep the vids coming mate always a pleasure to watch ya

I recently built an Inglenook as part of a 2ft x 4ft loop for my 0-4-0 locos. I’m having a heap of fun with it. The hand of god doesn’t bother me, that’s how the full size railroads would do it.

watched the lot...brilliant....good to see you had the cars on the right side of the road for Europe !! Lol

Have build an inglenook layout by looking at your videos and they are fun.. Off course Hand of God is involved in my layout also.. No need to worry about that, as we are not cheating. It was, when hand of God was involved in Argentina's win in1986 football quarter finals against English team and Leg of God was involved in Pakistans win over England in 1992 cricket world cup..

This is absolutely brilliant. Raw shunting with all the fiddling is the best. And wagon cards are a must. This is one of your best videos. I love them all.

I find these kinds of layout therapeutic, I wrote a MS Excel doc where I wrote out all of the wagons, select which ones were ‘in play’, and then had it randomise a selection of either 4 wagons or 3 wagons and a brake van (if the brake was picked, it only does so at the end). What I also like is because they’re such small layouts, you don’t mind putting a lot of effort in to make something really smart, you can turn it around quite quickly and get to the reward rather than it being never ending. Not to mention easy to put on a shelf. I did try to be clever with some magnets and staples for auto-uncoupling. That did not work at all, if you had it working on one wagon, you blew it on the rest… back to a piece of bent welding rod, a shunters pole!

Great effort 👌 looks very good and don't worry about bad comments I got back in too model railways five years ago and built up quite a collection but having said that I don't buy expensive stuff just don't see the point when as you have shown what you can do and get for your money I know things have gone up in the last two years but there is still bargains too be had if you look for them look forward too more videos

Brilliant Mike... Love this little layout.. Quite inspirational in fact and I stayed to the end... thanks for sharing.

I'm in Canada so HO country and I'm doing a British outline OO layout based on the Inglenook . The baseboard is an old closet door, the track is reused Peco flex that has been sitting in various garages for the last several decades. The stock is all "new to me" used items from E-bay and Hattons, and the power supply is older than my marriage. The only new bits are the 3 switches. I was going to go with 2 and use the third for the fiddle yard. I decided instead to go with cassettes and put the switch on the layout for future operations. I intend to have the extra siding blocked by a works train when I am shunting the inglenook.

The goods sidings for the brewery on Wealdhurst will be an inglenook puzzle built into the freight line of the layout. It will be able to be run stand alone whilst the rest of the layout is running. It is always where the operational fun is found!! Chris @ Wealdhurst.

I LOVE this layout. The density of buildings and track is very appealing. The fact you purchase used stock for your railroad constructions is really appreciated by me. It probably keeps a lot of it from going into the tip when it's perfectly usable. I also like the idea of owning models and scenery that already have a "history" attached to it. It's easy to throw a bunch of money at technology for switching and coupling, but it's much more fun to do it old school with "the hand of God". Keep up the good work. I'm living in the states so I enjoy the HO theme.

Your shunting videos are a huge source of inspiration for my own layouts and shunting.

Really enjoyed the video, Really wish I had started out HO scale kind regards Deano.

Bought a Piko Hobby HO Gauge Diesel BR 218 57906 from RMS for £51.67 including postage on black Friday. What a loco! Heavy and runs real slow and smooth. Designed for 1st radius curves. Brilliant.

I own a motley assortment of European rolling stock and a few old locomotives from my childhood, and this video is making me seriously consider building this little puzzle.

great video, really enjoyed it, thanks

Hi That layout looks great, so long as you are having fun and enjoying the hobby, no-one can say any different, Enjoy! Thanks

Great, informative as ever, and I watched till the end!

Hi mate, just catching up: seems you really got on with this! 😮 Looks terrific! And so your continental locos have a lovely playground to enjoy themselves! 😎 Love how the backscene is the only new part 😄 Great stuff 🍀👍🍻

Always enjoy your stuff. Love the refreshing attitude 👍

Yet another great and inspirational layout. I love the big flashy layouts too, but there is more than enough room for all of us to enjoy the hobby thanks to the boys from BMR!

The late lamented "Scale Model Trains" magazine used to delight in illustrating real life examples of inglenooks. The "puzzle, of course, is more than a "game." It reflects what used to happen in mixed freight yards on a regular basis.

Enjoyed watching the shunting until the end.

Shunting lay outs are my fav, & I enjoy building. As you say it is great way to exercise your wagons.

I watched to the end! Very therapeutic 😊

The classic hand of god clip nice one Mike cheers from Bruce

Awesome layout! so much shunting potential and you can have hours of fun with that. I have always liked the idea of a small shunting layout. - Nicholas.

All of us Americans are going, "HO? Let's go!" :D

What a great idea easy to control simple looks easy to use hours of shunting nice one Mike cheers from Bruce

Love the video mate! Your shunting videos are what inspired me to build my 1st shelf layout (stole your design as well, it was a great track plan) I use it as a modified inglenook (main track in the center) as well as with my HO switcher and reefers (I lovingly call it the Six Pack Shuffle as they are all beer cars) Keep up the great work and cheers! 🍻

Having attempted (but never completed) large layouts and medium sized shelf layouts, my favorite and most fun has been a simple 1x4 feet HO Inglenook. Simple, bullet-proof, yet highly satisfying. Oh, not to mention, quite budget friendly! In the U.S. its fairly easy to find inglenooks on the prototype, particularly in small towns or industrial sections of large cities. The town in which I live (central Alabama) had a large mill which manufactured cotton gins. The old buildings, dating back to the 19th century, are being turned into apartments. Old maps show that it was rail served until the early 1960's, an industrial branch off the old Louisville & Nashville RR. It was a pure inglenook with two switches (points) and three sidings serving a boiler house (coal, then later oil), a wood shed, and the main warehouse. Single industries are great subjects for inglenook layouts. Thanks for the excellent video and hope you will follow-up on this little layout.

The use of HO is interesting and, as you say, cheaper. I started my railway modelling with an Inglenook sidings in N gauge on a baseboard 22" x 7" made from 1/4 Inch balsa. It's amazing haw many variations there are on the Inglenook design. Yours has shorter sidings and uses less wagons but the idea works just as well. I then got sidetracked into a OO gauge layout on which I made the mistake of modelling a cobblestoned yard which is taking ages to finish. Have no fear, your videos will never look like Charlie Chadwicks.

Another great video from BMR! The As-Is section at most IKEA’s usually have good cheap material for a small layout baseboard. Plus I just found and bought a nice Hornby OO R156 Class 08 Shunter at my local model railways shop here in Portland, OR that would work very nicely on a small inglenook layout like that.

Love it! Great idea. I think it needs just a few extra millimeters to the sidings or you are going to run into the problem of bumping cars again. I have been strictly N-scale for years but now you have me thinking of bringing out my old HO-scale trains and building an Inglenook. Thanks for sharing. Cheers!

That was a great watch. Loved it

Looking into the 'Inglehook' puzzle at the moment, and you bring up a small but interesting issue. I can see how this will work great with 1960s British vendors wagons, they are varied and colourful. But I'm collecting 1970s Japanese rolling stock which are very bland and generic which makes the range of types not so interesting. I'm toying with resorting to coloured stickers atop my wagons to tell them apart. As I say, not a big issue but British and North American wagons are more colourful.

Hi Mike enjoyed the video and I watched it to the very end l always feel that if somebody gone to the trouble of trying to show me something then I must do them justice, I do struggle on occations, when there desils, I am more of steam train enthusiast but that's just me. There is always other bits and bobs to watchout fore scenery buildings etc and you are very good at showing us around your various with little tips here and there. You are an inspiration to us all

Blimey, two days ago it was three and a half minutes, today it's nineteen, if I deserved a medal two days ago today it's a full VC and bar. I knew it wouldn't take you long to get it going, great job and a nice little inglenook to play trains on.

Love the BUDGET emphasis here -- RR modeling _can_ be a "rich man's hobby," but *you prove there's gobs of fun to be had on a shoestring.* Bravo!! 🚂🧡🚃💚🚃💚🚃

Brilliant video👍

Hi Mike. As I've pointed out before, I watch your uploads through to the end. There's nothing wrong with HO. It's a case of whatever takes your fancy. Inglenook layouts are a great idea as they keep you busy and involved whereas 'roundy-round' layouts become repetitive after a while and, after succumbing to their hypnotic effect, it can be a case of 'night night... zzzz!' OO Gauge is also just as entertaining but don't mix HO and OO wagons as the former's smaller scale is noticable when in the same rake as OO Gauge (at least that's what my eyesight tells me). Keep these uploads coming Mike. Paul. 👍

I was planing a branch line scene off of my main layout like this so it was a fun video !

I avidly watch all your videos, Mike, although I admit that I hardly ever comment. But I responded to your challenge and watched this one all the way through and thoroughly enjoyed it. You and Doug got me to get back into the hobby several years ago (for which I am extremely grateful) and I find your videos far more inspiring than those that are about layouts costing tens of thousands of pounds. Personally, I don't entirely follow that 'Budget' concept having been entirely seduced by DCC and in particular DCC sound so I have a small number of locos but they all cost rather a lot of money compared with your £50 bargain purchases. But as you so often say, its your railway and you can do what you like!!! I've been looking at building a shunting puzzle for a while now and having seen this video I'm now going to give it a go! Keep up the good work and keep the videos coming. My very best wishes to you, Doug and your family. I hope he is enjoying Uni and doesn't lose his passion for railways. I remember I oringinally lost interest when I discovered girls........😄

Wow. I have a 4ft by 1ft board I could easily make one. Who cares about what other people think , its what you want that matters. Excellent video. Thank you

Hello Lee, this is Martin from Hull. Love your H0 shunting layout. You always do great layouts what ever gauge you work in. Well done. 👍

That fluorescent blue class 37 looks great!

Hi Lee, just liked and subbed, I do like the idea of small shunting layouts, as well as OO, I also work in German TT, and the layout I have been taking to exhibitions is only 5 feet long ( it's built on what used to be the top of the mantlepiece), but I've had a lot of favourable comments, however, we've just moved house and everything is in a bit of an upheaval at the moment, so the modelling is curtailed, but hopefully it won't be too long before I can get started again, anyway, stay safe, all the best from Scotland, Stephen.

HO may be 3.5mm/ft unlike 00's 4mm/ft, but when I've seen continental layouts they always seem a little more compact and get more in the same space without looking toy train-ish. That little 0.5mm/ft makes a lot of difference. It's a shame UK railway's haven't made the transition to HO. It really shows up when you see a true 4mm scale layout and you realise just how far out the track gauge and sleeper spacings are. 00 is a bit of a basket case scale. Hopefully the TT:120 scale will address that and be the correct scale and gauge, almost a ready to run finescale straight from the (very expensive) box. The downside being no second hand market to purchase affordable stock from yet.

Inspirational. I have a US n gauge inglenook track layout which is fine with lots of space, and when I put my German goods wagons on they are lost or require doubling or tripling of wagons to fill the space. This has led me to consider the HO gauge when modelling German goods as N gauge is just too small. N gauge works for passenger coaches but not for small goods. Now I am considering a HO inglenook like yours with a BR89 and the Roco Goods wagon set (8 wagons for £80).

Wow, that went together quick! Great idea, I've recently been thinking about an inglenook - my son is desperate for a layout, but we don't have the space. He really only wants to see a couple of his tender locomotives going around in a circle, but actually I think he'll get more use out of a shunting layout. Keep up the great work Mike - inspiring us to have a go and do things economically!

Nice as always. One of my (many) current projects is Filingnook: n gauge Inglenook in a box file. Need the sidings to be straight, as coupling for n isn't great on a curve.

That was fun. Briliiant. I think i'll make myself a little shelf layout to do this. A christmas project i think. I love the warts n all style. My current layout is large but very simple with no bells n whistles (dcc etc). Nice and simple to run. I prefer this style of video to some of the very technical youtubers. Keep it up.

Hello, brilliant layout,moving the wagons you seem to have enough to shunt to other sidings,it was interesting to see this all the way through.

good vid nice layout thanks lee

A great small layout. If it was a british layout, you could use a GWR autocoach as well as a railbus.👍

I know that feeling of the loco working lovely until you go to make a video the engine was a r2423 hornsby hymek from about 20 years ago and I ran well when I reviewed it but as soon as I went to do a rolling stock review it didn't work I am still trying to repair it but great work on a layout that is nearly finished when mine is only balled and about the same size

Yes, I did watch it show to the end. The sidings are a bit short so. Why did you not incorporate the "Tunnel" section into it? I like it anyway.

Sometimes this is all that one needs. If possible it' makes the operations a whole lot easier to have all the wagons the same length. I watched it until the end.

Definitely more options available to you for smaller layouts if you go for steam era or very very early diesel - Modern image is possible but the size and scale make it difficult to be convincing

It would be easier if you formed the outgoing train on the longest siding (the one nearest the station building) Then you wouldn't get the problem of the formed train blocking the point (as at 11:24). Part of the Inglenook design is that each siding has a maximum capacity. In the classic Inglenook the capacities are 5, 3 and 3. There's also a maximum capacity on the headshunt. At the beginning of this video I thought you had done a 3, 2, 2 design, but then you tried to put 4 wagons into a 2 wagon siding!

I know you're just using this locomotive because it's what you have but these locomotives are actually not out of place on small branch lines! We even had these ones (I suspect yours is a BR 218? If so it's the same class I'm talking about.) in the Netherlands on the 'Kamperlijntje' hauling freight trains and shunting them around. Trains were a bit larger with around 10 wagons but I think they were used because of a locomotive shortage, so the Dutch Railways had some German engines come and help.

I wonder if a 3-2-2 layout instead of a 5-3-3 layout will get a bit boring after some time? The very small size of your layout is intriging though, since I don't have any space for a stationary layout and must rely on suitcase layouts that I can store away. This one would fit into a keyboard case. Looks nice. I'm thinking of building one in N-Scale, because the couplers are easy to uncouple, but I'm afraid it would be too small to enjoy. Have to do some more thinking. Thanks for sharing this.

You know I think the original ingelnook sidings didn’t have a fiddle yard just the confines of the layout it just had enough for its Lima 08/09 and two wagons and used a tidily wink computer what ever that was Just shows you can have a model railway anywhere All the best 👍🏻😊

About couplings, personal experience : originals are usually the best : works anytime, standardized, costs nothing. For my N scale models, I had decided to leave the originals : they do the job, and I have no justification to buy better ones. Especially with my Japanese rolling stock, devoid of NEM coupling sockets... Personal opinion : the loop couplers for continental rolling stock is not the greatest, especially in terms of reliability, and you easily wants to replace them. The UK tension lock couplers are far better. But I had planned to replace them for several reasons, one of those is the fact that I have German ferry wagons that can run on UK tracks as the prototype. But that's me...

I am building one aswell

Don't suppose you've got any old triang tt120 stuff you can show us?

Its me again sorry for message so late for you in the uk I'm interested to find out information please is possible to use peco track outside ho scale for example garden railway or do I need special track can with stand our hot summer conditions here in new Zealand even rain cheers from Bruce

Have any OO inglenook layouts for sale?

Love the video, Been watching for a bit. If you're ever looking for someone to help edit videos I've had a bit of experience editing a couple different channels as well as my own old videos. If you're interested shoot me a message id be happy to help

Not too much difference between HO and OO 87:76.. simplicity is the key once again...

It would help if you actually understood how an inglenook shunting puzzle works. You can only have the loco plus 3 wagons in the headshunt at any time And also the two sidings closest to you can only hold a maximum of 3 wagons each. Look it up online, there is a whole website dedicated to it.