“MY HOLIDAYS”

Some of Ruth Kirk’s earliest memories relate to camping coaches: “I was born in 1952 and must have been pretty young when my family first went, because I clearly remember my mother pinning me into my camping coach bed with safety pins so I wouldn’t fall out. About a month before each holiday she would pack a huge tin trunk with everything we needed so this could be sent ahead. We always stayed at quiet, rural stations where the coaches were surrounded by long grass, bushes and weeds. As the sidings had no platform, and trains are quite high up off the ground, we boarded via wooden steps. Inside, all the lampshades and pictures remained in place from when the carriage was in active service.”