diff --git a/simgear/misc/strutils.cxx b/simgear/misc/strutils.cxx
index fde1812f..ef911230 100644
--- a/simgear/misc/strutils.cxx
+++ b/simgear/misc/strutils.cxx
@@ -175,6 +175,33 @@ namespace simgear {
 	    return result;
 	}
 
+
+        string_list split_on_any_of(const std::string& str, const char* seperators)
+        {
+            if (seperators == nullptr || (strlen(seperators) == 0)) {
+                throw sg_exception("illegal/missing seperator string");
+            }
+
+            string_list result;
+            size_t pos = 0;
+            size_t startPos = str.find_first_not_of(seperators, 0);
+            for(;;)
+            {
+                pos = str.find_first_of(seperators, startPos);
+                if (pos == string::npos) {
+                    result.push_back(str.substr(startPos));
+                    break;
+                }
+                result.push_back(str.substr(startPos, pos - startPos));
+                startPos = str.find_first_not_of(seperators, pos);
+                if (startPos == string::npos) {
+                    break;
+                }
+            }
+            return result;
+
+        }
+
 	/**
 	 * The lstrip(), rstrip() and strip() functions are implemented
 	 * in do_strip() which uses an additional parameter to indicate what
diff --git a/simgear/misc/strutils.hxx b/simgear/misc/strutils.hxx
index 4343971a..94008afe 100644
--- a/simgear/misc/strutils.hxx
+++ b/simgear/misc/strutils.hxx
@@ -122,6 +122,17 @@ namespace simgear {
 	       const char* sep = 0,
 	       int maxsplit = 0 );
 
+      /**
+       * split a string on any of several characters. Commonly used to deal
+       * with strings containing whitespace, newlines. To parse CSS style
+       * string, use with '\n\t ,' as the seperator list.
+       *
+       * Note consecutive seperators will not produce empty entries in the
+       * the result, i.e splitting 'a,b,,c,d' with a ',' will produce a result
+       * with four entries, not five.
+       */
+      string_list split_on_any_of(const std::string&, const char* seperators);
+
        /**
         * create a single string by joining the elements of a list with
         * another string.
diff --git a/simgear/misc/strutils_test.cxx b/simgear/misc/strutils_test.cxx
index e0fdbdee..81d12a2d 100644
--- a/simgear/misc/strutils_test.cxx
+++ b/simgear/misc/strutils_test.cxx
@@ -119,6 +119,24 @@ void test_split()
   l = strutils::split("  ", ",");
   SG_CHECK_EQUAL(l.size(), 1);
   SG_CHECK_EQUAL(l[0], "  ");
+
+
+    const char* testCases[] = {
+        "alpha,bravo, charlie\tdelta\n\recho,    \t\r\nfoxtrot golf,\n\t\n \n",
+        "  alpha  bravo \t charlie,,,delta    echo\nfoxtrot\rgolf"
+    };
+
+    for (const char* data: testCases) {
+        l = strutils::split_on_any_of(data, "\n\t\r ,");
+        SG_CHECK_EQUAL(l.size(), 7);
+        SG_CHECK_EQUAL(l[0], "alpha");
+        SG_CHECK_EQUAL(l[1], "bravo");
+        SG_CHECK_EQUAL(l[2], "charlie");
+        SG_CHECK_EQUAL(l[3], "delta");
+        SG_CHECK_EQUAL(l[4], "echo");
+        SG_CHECK_EQUAL(l[5], "foxtrot");
+        SG_CHECK_EQUAL(l[6], "golf");
+    }
 }
 
 void test_unescape()