First of all, have a good new year, and thanks for stopping by. So what will the new year bring? Recharging the batteries in the depths of the heart of Wales always does some good, and brings the opportunity to just sit back and think. The rain this past week has been biblical on occasion, meaning time inside just watching and listening to the rain.

So what does this mean for my world of toy trains? Basically getting back to the big project, the Forest Of Dean, do I still want to do it? Easy answer, yes. How do I want to do it? That’s a bit harder, and the break has made me think do I need to rationalise my ‘big’ idea. Partly I think yes, maybe some simplification will help, a maximum of three locations instead of my preferred four. DCC is beginning to gain some ground with me, historically I’ve worked in DC, so a bit of DCC playtime may be on the cards. The decider may be how much time I have to spend configuring the locos to run as well as they do on DC, because I really don’t like ‘working’ with computers!

Lighting and display again come to the forefront whilst watching the weather here, they make such a play in and on the landscape, even in the depth of winter. Tree structure and woodland environments are really noticeable too, again giving real food for thought regarding making them convincingly, a particular challenge for the Forest of Dean.

Shelfie2 is a key player in how I decide to take the FoD project forward, next couple of weeks will concentrate on the fiddle Yard/staging and the lighting and backscene. This past week will help push that forwards. I hope. It being new year and all that shite..