Caravan Trains across the Desert Anglesey

In today's highly regulated railway, it's sometimes difficult to remember how free and easy things used to be. Not so long ago, when the holiday season came round, engine drivers could borrow one of the smaller and older engines for a week, hitch up the caravan, pile the family into the back, and head off for the coast. Here, we see 24081 heading off for a relaxing time in sunny Anglesey.

24081 at Llanfair PG 04/09/79

But wait a minute......

24081 at Llanfair PG 04/09/79

24081 has three caravans in tow (count the shadows), so it was either a very big family or .....

24081 at Llanfair PG 04/09/79

perhaps all is not as we said, and the curse of April the First has struck again?

And the more plausible explanation?......Until the road deck on the Britannia Bridge opened in 1980, the only road access to Anglesey was the width-restricted Menai Suspension Bridge. And "mobile home" type caravans didn't fit! Actually. looking at the pictures above, they hardly fitted the BR loading gauge either. These were very occasional workings from Bangor Goods Yard to Valley CEGB Sidings; worked here (4th September 1979) by Llandudno Junction's spare loco that day, and the only Class 24 still in service at the time, 24081.