Today I’m writing on behalf of the L-Gauge Modular Standard Oversight Committee.

Last August was the NMRA National Train Show in Kansas City, Missouri. A number of LEGO clubs and LTC’s were in attendance, and it was certainly one of the best non-LEGO shows with multiple clubs I’ve ever seen.

Of course, when you put that many LEGO train fans in one place, they start getting ideas. On Saturday evening after the show had closed for the day and everyone had eaten a Bar-be-que dinner, several people invaded the basement of Shawn Lazarz for some good ol’ conversation. There were several topics of discussion (and debate in some cases), one of the biggest being standardization. This was then broken into two categories: electronics and layouts.

Everyone was starting to get their hands on Lego’s new Powered Up! Train sets and putting them through their paces, finding the capabilities and limitations of the new system. Many people didn’t like what they found, so there was some discussion about the introduction of a “standardized” third party system, be that LEGO-based like a PFx Brick or SBrick, or train-based, like a radio-DCC system, or DelTang.

The conversation then turned to layouts and collaborative displays.

One of the issues faced by the participants of the LEGO layouts was connectivity, and we wanted to find a way to make collaborative layouts a much easier and more practical possibility for future shows. Suppose a group of, say, 7 individuals are meeting at a show in a somewhat central location, and they all have a few compliant modules, they could easily meet at the show, set up, and have a working layout of fair size without dealing with headaches such as differences in table height or track placement. Our inspiration was drawn primarily from the Free-Mo standard, which is a well-known and widely used standard for traditional scale modelers. There was a large HO scale Free-Mo layout at NMRA in August, which helped spark the conversation for a LEGO modular standard.

In the weeks following the show, a private Facebook group was created for discussion and for voting on standards. Once all voting had taken place, everything was compiled and put into an official document, and then revised for wording and clarity.

We are pleased to finally publish the “L-Gauge Modular Standard” or LGMS for short.

The philosophy of LGMS is “come and play.” If you’re a serious layout builder with six modules or a college student with room enough for one module in the back of your car, all are welcome. Whether you’re bringing a 1980’s space or Blacktron themed module, or a rivet-counting and historically accurate representation of your hometown train station, as long as it meets the requirements, it’s fair game for a layout. The same goes for trains; there will not be a defined scale. Locomotives and cars from six wide to ten wide and in between are allowed. However, there will be clearances which will need to be adhered to.

We have created a public Facebook group for discussion and collaboration. The private Facebook group will still be used by the committee to revise the standard. Both groups will be kept up to date with the most current revision of LGMS, and we’ll have a separate page for it here on the BMR website as well.

Our plan is to have the first LGMS layout in operation at Brickworld Chicago later this year, and several individuals have already committed to bringing enough modules for a sizable loop layout. Several requirements are subject to change following the event.

Everyone who has been involved in the creation of LGMS is very pleased and excited to publish the document for public enjoyment. We hope that it will be useful for individuals and clubs alike who aim to make large collaborative layouts. The goal of LGMS is not to replace club layouts, but rather provide a means of working together.

We hope you find good use for this new modular standard.

To keep up to date on talk, event planning, and news for the the L-Gauge Modular Standard join the L-Guage Modular Standards Discussion Group on Facebook.

The current L-Gauge Modular Standard Guidelines can be downloaded from the link bellow.

L-GAUGE MODULAR STANDARD