Hey everyone! It's a new month and a new year, which means stickers are in the mail for all new Sprocket patrons in December, and credits have been updated in upcoming videos and on the blog.

2025 was a terrific year for the channel, and I have you all to thank for that. I'm really enjoying making these for videos for all of you, and I'm honoured and privileged to be able to continue doing so. I'm also immensely grateful that, because of you, I don't have to do sponsored ads. Every week, yet another popular YouTube advertiser turns out to be a terrible scam. I'd hate to have my credibility attached forever to some terrible herbal supplement, AI therapy bot, tech bro TV dinner, or whatever else is stealing everyone's data this week. The YouTube market grows more hostile to small channels every day, and videos like mine basically never get surfaced to anyone organically anymore. It's only through the support of dedicated enthusiasts like yourselves who find me that this little enterprise remains viable.

You probably noticed that I went pretty heavy on the locomotive videos this year, mainly because I'm in the zone on it and I'm really enjoying working on it. I didn't happen to have as many side projects that I wanted to do this year, so the locomotive got more screen time. I know that's not everyone's cup of tea, but this year should have a little more variety. I have a stack of casting kits making sad eyes at me here, and I have some more directly-educational content that I'd like to do. That should mix things up a bit. This may (no promises) be the year I finish the locomotive. I give it maybe 60% odds. If so, however, it would be late in the year so I likely wouldn't get to run it until the following spring. The club track generally only runs in warmer weather. It's also six hours away so I have to plan a trip to get there and that will dictate when this thing runs revenue service for its first time. I would like to build a small portable test track though so I can at least drive it a bit, but I don't have a big yard so it would be literally a little circle or oval. Maybe something I can set up in a local park. We'll see what happens with that. It's just an idea I've been toying with.

Anyways, thank you for all your support, and here's hoping 2026 is another great year for the channel, and a better year for the world. Yeah. You know what I mean. cough