We report investigations of delay line configurations used to encode photon event locations in microchannel plate (MCP) detectors. Several delay line schemes of planar and multilayer structure are discussed. We examine the importance of the delay line substrate material, and show that the raw signals from delay lines are narrow (~3-4ns FWHM). The factors determining the delay line resolution are evaluated, and we demonstrate that these are in agreement with measurements. Resolutions of -18gm FWHM have been achieved. Measurements of the linearity of the delay line readout show that event centroid locations deviate from perfect linearity by less than 5011m, even with the very simple anode fabrication methods employed. The image stability has also been evaluated and we show that image shifts are less than one resolution element over a period of two months.