A slightly different shape to the Seasonal Area picture this month; we apologise to all of you using vintage computers with monitors which are less than 750 pixels wide. It has been decided to prune the picture to something broadly approximating its main subject for a change.

This is a picture which really shouldn't have been taken - apart from it being another one taken while hanging out of a train window, it was taken from a train which was running some 55 minutes late. Had all been well, the train from which this picture was taken would have been passed while the train shown was still rousing from its slumbers in Buckfastleigh. As it was, when the Penzance to London Paddington (via Bristol) early morning express sailed past No. 3205 was loitering at the south end of one of the South Devon Railway's "Santa Specials" at Totnes Littlehempston, which is adjacent to the Great Western mainline between Exeter and Plymouth (and a convenient distance from Totnes mainline station). After an appropriate pause, the loco will have run around its train and taken the hopefully happy passengers back to Buckfastleigh.

December is a cold month; the fact that the frost, grey skies and occasional snow give a Christmassy air is merely fortunate for taking everyone's minds off the atrocious weather. Still, on this particular 2010 day - most of our 2011 Seasonal Area pictures were taken in 2010, sorry - the sun was getting up about as much as it ever does on the second shortest day of the year, it wasn't raining and the wait at signal LL1028, a few miles east of Bodmin Parkway, for a points failure to be remedied was partially offset by the gloriously lit scenery outside. (That and the general interest in reading Times reports on the near-end of Vince Cable's political career.)

Back in 2012.