At the beginning of 2001 Britain's railways were still recovering from the fallout from the Hatfield disaster and the subsequent 'collective nervous breakdown' that the industry suffered. At Old Linslade on January 13th I shot a northbound Dollands Moor to Daventry intermodal, the down relief was subject to a 20 mph speed restriction between Linslade Tunnel and the Soulbury Road overbridge, some one and a half miles through a set of reverse curves which Railtrack had yet to check for the phenomena known as 'gauge corner cracking' which caused the Hatfield derailment. At the time Railtrack had imposed some 1200 emergency speed restrictions whilst an army of engineers were out checking the track for signs of cracking.

Our long distance holiday in 2001 was at the end of May, beginning of June to the USA and Canda. We started in New York, then I set off on my own to head to Quebec for a last look at Quebec Cartier Mining's all Alco fleet on the Cartier Railway, before returning to New York and us both flying from there to Chicago for a week in the backwoods of upstate Wisconsin with friend Mel Finzer.

In late summer 2001 I had a hernia operation which sidelined me for a couple of weeks. I couldn't drive but was encouraged to do some gentle exercise, so using public transport I took myself around London taking pictures. The weather was kind but it was all over way too soon and I was back at work before I knew it.