Layouts

All you need to know about building your first layout, or the best one yet.

Standards

There are several standards out there, developed specifically so fans from all over the place can come together during an event and enjoy driving their trains together, without too much worrying if the sections are going to fit together.

Typically, track spacing is the same for all standards, being 8 studs between the tracks with the mainline consisting of double track. This is because all L-gauge track on the market is using a geometry based on 16 stud increments in turn radius size. That being said, each standard has a different track height, different guidelines about track positions and a differrent approach to building as a community.

The main Standards out there are:

MILS
By far the most widely used standard, well-documented and getting a lot of support from the community. Instructions for several train-related modules can be found on L-Gauge.org , ranging from basic straight track to complex ballasting instructions. MILS is, however, a lot more flexible as a standard and really only dictates how the edges of a module should be shaped. It originates from Hispabrick, officially, and is described here: http://www.abellon.net/MILS/ As there is no official MILS train standard, most user groups have set up their own set of guidelines as to how MILS should be applied inside a group layout.