Rabbit warren layout

[1] A group of designs, more than a single constructed layout, rabbit warrens provide a display of continuously moving trains that appear to pop in and out of tunnels, seemingly randomly.

The rabbit warren design has a number of key, defining features: They are based on a single running loop, although twisted into overlapping curves.

Some layouts in the 1970s used the early transistorised control circuits then becoming available to run automatically, switching between trains as each entered the loop.

The rabbit warren was invented, or at least given its first UK prominence, by C. J. Freezer, long-term editor of Railway Modeller magazine.

Unlike the few scratch-built models with their generous hand-made wheelbase, the tiny, short 0-4-0 chassis from Egger-bahn could run reasonably well on the steep tight curves of the rabbit.

Meanderbahn, built in the 1980s by Jack Carter and still exhibited in 2024, packs 30 feet of running line into an Alpine theme across five levels.

[7] When a rabbit warren, or its flatland cousin the pizza layout,[ii] is made today, it is in a knowing context as a deliberately retro- and ironic effort.

The quarries were vast, with terraces carrying level grade, but poorly-laid and uneven track of 2' gauge, worked by the ubiquitous Hunslet saddle tanks.