My father also worked for the railway. Apart from lorries during the war, he never drove, so all my family holidays were by train, courtesy of privs and free passes.
Privs were, in general, unrestricted issue for employees and family, at 1/4 fare. (I travelled much on these as a youth). Free passes were a restricted number per year, for each family member, based on grade, service, etc. (and an extra one if you became a qualified first-aider).
From memory, my father got 5 per year, and, due to employment history, for much of the time I remember, they were 1st class. Certainly in the early days, even post-nationalisation (which pre-dates me!) all bar one of the entitlement was limited to the geographical area of the employees post-grouping company (LNER in our case). That meant that one of our two annual week's holiday was always on the East Coast (and trips to London, for example, took the old LNER route, not the Midland). The second holiday was anywhere else in the UK, so we explored Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, Devon, Somerset or whatever on that one.
The long-distance trips involved a number of overnight journeys with changes of train at odd hours of the morning, but were always exciting and remembered with affection. Despite the lack of a car, I was much more travelled than the majority of my contemporaries.
Over time, the full free-pass entitlement was made UK-wide (and yes, I've done the Channel Islands thing, since tickets were valid on all the railway and ex-railway ferries).
I spent something around a quarter of my father's duration working for the railway, but held a 1st class, all stations and ships "leather" pass (a piece of plastic with a paper endorsement) for a good few years before I left. That made for some good outings, and, combined with the very flexible overseas travel arrangements in place by the time I left (pretty much unlimited European travel, 1st class - Pyrenees, Bergen, Vienna, etc all for the price of any cabins and/or couchettes) I wish I had the facility now (well, not exactly "now", but you know what I mean).
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