Winter 2012 started on December 1st in proper wintry fashion, with a widespread frost and later a cold north westerly wind. 60163 Tornado was on an Ipswich to Bath and Bristol Cathedrals Express along the North London Line and later in the day I cycled over to Silkstream Junction Hendon for the Earles cement and the Lindsey tanks. Sunday was equally cold but brighter, I went out to Cowroast on the WCML and caught the Daventry to Tilbury Stobart train and the RHTT.

During the week there were a couple of opportunities to see the 1Q14 test train, I managed one picture, at Horsham on Wednesday. On Friday I had to be in Bexleyheath at lunchtime, whilst changing trains at Lewisham I saw both the 4O88 (Lawley Street to Grain) and the 6O88 (Paddington Crossrail to Northfleet) whilst Saturday morning found me at the Ouse Washes waiting for 60059 on an extra 6L75, carrying limestone to Ely, presumably bound for British Sugar at Wissington.

Despite the bright but cold weather during the following week I had little or no opportunity to take any pictures, it was Saturday 15th before I got out again, this time to King's Sutton in Northants, just south of Banbury.

December 21st saw me back in East Anglia for a day out prior to Christmas. After the rain of the previous 24 hours Friday was surprisingly benign. The last pictures of 2012 were taken back in London during my lunch break on Thursday and Friday, Goblin regulars 6X44 and 4M71

After a week in Jordan and my encounter with the Aqaba Railway Corporation my first outing back home was on January 13th to see Metropolitan E class no.1 and Sarah Siddon on the LU150 VIP train. What a treat.

After our snowy interlude I had a very pleasant few hours on the last Saturday of the month running around North London after Pathfinder's Buffer Puffer 10 tour and on the final day of the month an hour late morning on the Goblin at South Tottenham and Harringay Park Junction.

As February began the weather started to get colder once more, it was really bitter at Old Linslade where I spent a few hours on Saturday afternoon. Snow returned to London and the South East on the 10th & 11th although it didn't last very long, by the end of the week the weather was showing signs of calming down. The cold returned with a vengeance during the third week of the month and stayed that way. We had a few days in the Lake District to go walking, I managed a few Settle and Carlisle shots.