Shunt Yard
A railway sorting puzzle. Farm wagons arrive in a jumbled order; move them one at a time through dead-end sidings to build the departing train in order 1, 2, 3. Sidings are short and last in is first out, so plan every move.
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Controls
Tap- Wagons wait on the ARRIVALS track; only the wagon nearest the junction can move. Tap a track to pick up its end wagon, then tap where it should go: a siding or the DEPARTURES track.
- Sidings are dead ends: wagons go in and come out at the same end, so the last wagon pushed in is the first one out, and each siding only holds the number of wagons shown. The departure train must be built in order: wagon 1 first, then 2, then 3 and so on, so a wagon can only go to DEPARTURES when it is the next number.
- Wagons can also move from one siding to another. UNDO takes back a move (it still counts), RESET starts the yard again.
- The fewest moves possible is shown; match it for three stars, stay within four extra moves for two.
About the game
Shunt Yard is a calm logic puzzle about the quiet work of a small railway yard. A line of farm wagons, carrying cows, sheep, pigs, ducks and more, rolls in on the arrivals track in the wrong order, and a little shunting engine must sort them into a departing train numbered 1, 2, 3 from front to back. The engine can only move one wagon at a time, and only the wagon at the end of a track.
The yard has one, two or three sidings, short dead-end tracks where wagons can wait. Because a siding has only one way in and out, it behaves like a stack: the last wagon you push in is the first one you can pull out again. That simple rule turns every yard into a planning puzzle. Parking wagon 5 on top of wagon 2 blocks wagon 2 until 5 is moved again, and a full siding can trap the very wagon you need next. Good shunters look a few moves ahead and keep the next numbers on top. A solver found the fewest possible moves for every yard, and that number is shown so you know what to aim for. Eighteen yards grow from three wagons and one siding to nine wagons sorted through two or three sidings.
Free to play in your browser. No download, no sign-up. Best on a computer, or a phone held sideways. Your progress is saved on this device.
