Shunting Competition

In memory of Norm Spedding whose idea it was to hold a shunting competition. Norm was a founding member of our club. He passed away on 8th September 2009. He is missed by us all.

Background

This shunting competition is based on the classic Inglenook shunting competition using short lengths of track and two sets of points. Full information can be found here.

There are eight wagons arranged in random order in the sidings.
There are spaces for 14 wagons plus the loco.
Form a departing train consisting of 5 out of the 8 wagons sitting in the sidings.
The 5 wagons are selected at random.
The train must be made up of the 5 wagons in the order in which they are selected.

Rules for the Competition at the Convention

We will be using 7 ¼" ground level rolling stock. To avoid the time, hassle and crushed fingers of normal couplings we will use a person sitting at the end of a wagon to be the coupling to the next wagon. Therefore you will need a team of 10 or 11 people. Eight on the wagons, one on the loco, one on the points and perhaps one off to the side supervising and telling the team what gets moved where. You can make up teams on the day.

Caution - as you are using arms as couplings, beware of the weight of the other wagons in the line. The loco driver needs to move slowly and gently. We don't want any dislocated shoulders.
People on wagons must stay on their own wagon for the whole trial.
Track length limits must be obeyed, i.e. a maximum of 3 or 5 wagons on a track as given in the diagram above must be obeyed.
It doesn't matter which siding the complete train is on provided the loco is at one end and the wagons are in the correct order.
Although this is a competition the essence is to have fun.
The winning team is the one to assemble their train in the shortest time.