Introducing the Modular LEGO® Intermodal Standard

I Can’t Contain Myself!

Hello, dad joke of a title aside, I am very happy to be writing this article! My name is Cameron Miller. I founded Iron Horse Brick Co. (https://www.ironhorsebrickco.com/) with Aaron Burnett in September of 2018. I have been out of my dark ages since 2014 and have jumped head first into the world of LEGO® trains. Since the closure of Iron Horse Brick Co., I have become an owner of Brick Train Depot (https://www.bricktraindepot.com/) and that is what ultimately brings me to writing this article.

A couple months back, Cale from BMR, approached me about defining an intermodal container standard for the 1:48 scale (8 wide) trains that Brick Model Railroader and Brick Train Depot sell. I have had some free container and truck instructions published since my time at Iron Horse Brick Co. and have moved them to Brick Train Depot. Cale wanted to ensure that we could offer compatibility between our brands, much like model train manufacturers do with other scales.

The original Maersk Tain containers formed the starting point for the Modular LEGO® Intermodal Standard..

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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.

The participating AFOLs from the 2018 National Train Show

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.

Discussions about LEGO train modeling are always fun.

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.