Sources page biographical material

5.P. GENERAL MOVING PIECE PUZZLES
See also under 5.A.
5.P.1. SHUNTING PUZZLES
See Hordern, op. cit. in 5.A, pp. 167 177, for a survey of these puzzles. The Chifu Chemulpo (or Russo Jap Railway) Puzzle of 1903 is actually not of this type since all the pieces can move by themselves -- Hordern, pp. 124 125 & plate VIII.

See S&B 124 125.

A 'spur' is a dead end line. A 'side line' is a line or siding joined to another at both ends.
Mittenzwey. 1880. Prob. 219-221, pp. 39-40 & 91; 1895?: 244-246, pp. 43-44 & 93; 1917: 244-246, pp. 40 & 89. First two have a canal too narrow to permit boats to pass, with a 'bight', or widening, big enough to hold one boat while another passes. First problem has two boats meeting one boat; second problem has two boats meeting two boats. The third problem has a single track railway with a side-line big enough to hold an engine and 16 wagons on the side-line or on the main line between the switches. Two trains consisting of an engine and 20 wagons meet.

Lucas. RM2, 1883, pp. 131 133. Passing with a spur and with a side line.

Alexander Henry Reed. UK Patent 15,051 -- Improvements in Puzzles. Complete specification: 8 Dec 1885. 4pp + 1p diagrams. Reverse a train using a small turntable on the line. This has forms with one line and with two crossing lines. One object is to spell 'Humpty Dumptie'. He also has a circular line with three turntables (equivalent to the recent Top-Spin Puzzle of F. Lammertinck).

Pryse Protheroe. US Patent 332,211 -- Puzzle. Applied: 18 Sep 1885; patented: 8 Dec 1885. 3pp + 1p diagrams. Described in Hordern, p. 167. Identical to the Reed patent above! Both Reed and Protheroe are described as residents of suburban London. The Reed patent says it was communicated from abroad by an Israel J. Merritt Jr of New York and it doesn't assert that Reed is the inventor, so perhaps Reed and Merritt were agents for Protheroe.

Jeffrey & Son (Syracuse, NY). Great Railroad Puzzle. Postcard puzzle produced in 1888. ??NYS. Described in Hordern, pp. 175 176. Passing with a turntable that holds two wagons.

Arthur G. Farwell. US Patent 437,186 -- Toy or Puzzle. Applied: 20 May 1889; patented: 30 Sep 1890. 1p + 1p diagrams. Described in Hordern, pp. 167 169. Great Northern Puzzle. This requires interchanging two cars on the legs of a 'delta' switch which is too short to allow the engine through, but will let the cars through. Hordern lists 6 later patents on the same basic idea.

Ball. MRE, 1st ed., 1892, pp. 43 44. Great Northern Puzzle "which I bought some eight or nine years ago." (Hordern, p. 167, erroneously attributes this quote to Ahrens.)

Loyd. Problem 28: A railway puzzle. Tit Bits 32 (10 Apr & 1 May 1897) 23 & 79. Engine and 3 cars need to pass 4 cars by means of a 'delta' switch whose branches and tail hold only one car. Solution with 28 reversals.

Loyd. Problem 31: The turn table puzzle. Tit Bits 32 (1 & 22 May 1897) 79 & 135. Reverse an engine and 9 cars with an 8 track turntable whose lines hold 3 cars. The turntable is a double curved connection which connects, e.g. track 1 to tracks 4 or 6.

E. Fourrey. Récréations Arithmétiques. Op. cit. in 4.A.1. 1899. Art. 239: Problèmes de Chemin de fer, pp. 184-189.

I. Three parallel tracks with two switched crossing tracks. Train of 21 wagons on the first track must leave wagons 9 & 12 on third track.

II. Delta shape with a turntable at the point of the delta, which can only hold the wagons and not the engine, so this is isomorphic to Farwell.

III. This is a more complex railway problem involving timetables on a circular line.

J. W. B. Shunting! c1900. ??NYS. Described in Hordern, pp. 176 177 & plate XII. Reversing a train with a turntable that holds three wagons.

Orril L. Hubbard. US Patent 753,266 -- Puzzle. Applied: 21 Apr 1902; patented: 1 Mar 1904. 3pp + 1p diagrams. Great Railroad Puzzle, described in Hordern, pp. 175 176. Improved version of the Jeffrey & Son puzzle of 1888. Engine & 2 cars to pass engine & 3 cars, using a turntable that holds two cars, preserving order of each train.

Harry Lionel Hook & George Frederick White. UK Patent 26,645 -- An Improved Puzzle or Game. Applied: 3 Dec 1902; accepted: 11 Jun 1903. 2pp + 1p diagrams. This is very cryptic, but appears to be a kind of sliding piece Puzzle using turntables.

Mr. X [cf 4.A.1]. His Pages. The Royal Magazine 10:1 (May 1903) 50-51 & 10:2 (Jun 1903) 140-141 & 10:4 (Aug 1903) 336-337. A railway puzzle. One north-south line with a spur heading north which is holding 7 trucks, but cannot hold the engine as well, so the engine is on the main line heading south. An engine pulling seven trucks arrives from the north and wants to get past. First solution uses 17 stages; second uses 12 stages.

Mr. X [cf 4.A.1]. His Pages. The Royal Magazine 10:5 (Sep 1903) 426-427 & 10:6 (Oct 1903) 530 531. A shunting problem. Same as Fourrey - II, hence isomorphic to Farwell. Solution in 17 stages.

Celluloid Starch Puzzle. c1905. Described in Hordern, pp. 169 170. Cars on the three parts of a 'delta' switch with an engine approaching. Reverse the engine, leaving all cars on their original places. More complexly, suppose the tail of the 'delta' only holds one car or the engine.

Livingston B. Pennell. US Patent 783,589 -- Game Apparatus. Applied: 20 Mar 1902; patented: 28 Feb 1905. 3pp + 1p diagrams. Described in Hordern, p. 173. Passing with a side line -- engine & 3 cars to pass engine & 3 cars using a siding which already contains 3 cars, without couplings, so these three can only be pushed. Also the engines can move at most three cars at a time.

William Rich & Harry Pritchard. UK Patent 7647 -- Railway Game and Puzzle. Applied: 11 Apr 1905; complete specification: 11 Oct 1905; accepted: 14 Dec 1905. 2pp + 1p diagrams. Main line with two short and two long spurs.

Ball. MRE, 4th ed., 1905, pp. 61-63, adds a problem with a side-line, "on sale in the streets in 1905“. The 5th ed., 1911, pp. 69-71 & 82, adds the name "Chifu-Chemulpo Puzzle" and that the minimum number of moves is 26, in more than one way. P. 82 gives solutions of both problems.

Dudeney. The world's best puzzles. Op. cit. in 2. 1908. Great Northern Puzzle. He says the "Railway puzzle" was very popular "about twenty years ago".

Ahrens. MUS I. 1910. Pp. 3-4. Great Northern. Says it is apparently modern and cites Fourrey for other examples.

Anon. Prob. 6. Hobbies 32 (No. 814) (20 May 1911) 145 & (No. 817) (10 Jun 1911) 208. Great Northern Puzzle. Solution asks if readers know any other railway puzzles.

Loyd. The switch problem & Primitive railroading problem. Cyclopedia, 1914, pp. 167 & 361; 89 & 350 (= MPSL2, prob. 24, pp. 18 19; MPSL1, prob. 95, pp. 92 & 155). Passing with a 'delta' switch & passing with a spur. The first is like Tit-Bits Problem 28, but the engine and 3 cars have to pass 5 cars. Solution in 32 moves. See Hordern, pp. 170 171.

Hummerston. Fun, Mirth & Mystery. 1924. The Chinese railways, pp. 103 & 188. Imagine a line of positions: ABCEHGJLMN with single positions D, I, F, K attached to positions C, H, G, L. You have eight engines at ABCD and KLMN and the object is to exchange them, preserving the order. He does it in 18 moves, where a move can be of any length.

King. Best 100. 1927. No. 14, pp. 12 & 41. Side line with a bridge over it too low for the engine. Must interchange two wagons on the side line which are on opposite sides of the bridge.

B. M. Fairbanks. Railroad switching problems. IN: S. Loyd Jr., ed.; Tricks and Puzzles; op. cit. in 5.D.1 under Chapin; 1927. P. 85 & Answers p. 7. Three realistic problems with several spurs and sidelines.

Loyd Jr. SLAHP. 1928. Switching cars, pp. 54 & 106. Great Northern puzzle. See Hordern, pp. 168 169.

Doubleday - 2. 1971. Traffic jam, pp. 85-86. Version with cars in a narrow lane and a lay-by. Two cars going each way. Though the lay-by is three cars wide and just over a car long, he restricts its use so that it acts like it is two cars wide.