January 2026 Newsletter
Happy New Year, everyone!
Hope you all had a great new year and enjoyed some time with family and friends, or just some time off from it all. I know that's what I did 😉
As crazy as the holiday season can be, it allowed me to take some much need time off from all things Trainz.
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That said, getting back into the swing of things has been pretty slow going but we must persist! It is modeling season after all. Gota get it all in now before beach season 🙃
I don't have much to update at the moment but I do want to tell you about something new I'm trying out. I've been looking for ways to create more content for you guys without overwhelming myself with production time (shooting, editing, voiceovers, etc). So I'm going to begin sharing more frequent, dare I say, vlog-style videos maybe a few times a month. These videos will be more raw with minimal editing and covering range in topics from N scale projects to photography or whatever else seems relevant (it'll probably be more N scale weighted though). I'm planning to keep them within 5-10 minutes in length so they're easily viewable.
**For now,** the only place to view them will be on Patreon but they'll be FREE for everyone to watch. The reason for this is because of how Youtube works. If you have a few videos in a row that don't perform well (and I'm not sure how well these would perform), Youtube will not recommend your channel to anyone and you're basically cooked at that point. If there's interest in these vlog style videos, I may try to incorporate them into the Youtube channel in some way (maybe as part of the layout update videos) or perhaps I'll start a second channel just for vlogs. I have no idea, this is all an experiment and I'm trying not to overthink it.
The first video is already available and can be viewed on Patreon right now (free).
Beyond that, I'll be diving back into P&B things as usual and will keep you all up to date with its progress.
Additionally, we've discussed changing the day we do the hangouts and livestreams to Sunday nights. We'll try that out for now and see how it goes. The hope is that it's more accessible for more people to join/watch. The plan B day will still be Wednesday's in the event I'm not around on a Sunday.
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Patreon Benefits
Executive: The latest P&B download is already available. It includes all updates to the Old Town area as well as some additional texture updates throughout the route. Some area's are still pretty rough but we're getting there.
Dispatcher: Let's plan to try and do the monthly livestream on Sunday the 18th at 7 pm EST. If that doesn't work for some reason we'll move it to that Wednesday.
Project Manager: I'm hoping to put together some road spline scrapbooks to share. I haven't figured out the specifics yet but they'd be something like standard 2 lane roads, highways, intersections, etc. They'll just act as a starting point to make hand laid roads a little easier to work with.
Weekly Wednesday Hangouts: As mentioned, we'll move them to Sunday evenings for now and see how that works for everyone. Same time (7 pm est).
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If you watch any of the new vlog videos I put out, make sure to let me know what you think. Both good and bad feedback is useful for me!
Hope you all have a great start to your new year! Happy modeling season to all!