SRN-6

Post by **DaveB** » 21 Sep 2006, 15:16

Hiya Pete,

Hovertravel.. dag nab it yes!!

My minds eye was never particularly happy seeing SeaLink but Hovertravel, you said it and I knew it was right

Likewise with Seaspeed. Odd, but not unlikely I suppose, that for someone who spent much of his working life around Portsmouth Harbour with the Grey Funnel Line, I had little to do with and paid little attention to the comings and goings.

My first encounter with Porstmouth Harbour was travelling down to the IoW on holiday by steam train from Walsall ( :shock: ) and catching the BR Ferry over to the Island. The couple of times I went on the SRN6 would have been from the IoW to Southsea and not the other way around. The guest house we stayed at on the island was actually run by Christopher Cockrell's(sp) sister and I remember seeing pictures of the SRN1 on the walls there :shock:
Many years later of course, Portsmouth Harbour was a means of escape when come 4pm, the dockyard emptied and we all ran like folk possessed to get the train to Waterloo!!

Dear me.. I'd have been 17 then :roll: That's enough.. I feel old enough as it is!!

ATB

DaveB :tab:

ferryman · Post by **ferryman** » 21 Sep 2006, 17:23

There was another SRN5 service to the Isle of Wight in the 1960's. It ran from a slip near Crosshouse Hard (opposite the old Supermarine site) in Southampton to Cowes. Can't remember who ran it, but had many Sunday outings to the Island on it.

crisso · Post by **crisso** » 21 Sep 2006, 17:33

Few clarifications/input (as I recall from many childhood/youthful holidays on the IOW):

The Hovercraft in BUA Livery was not built by Saunders-Roe (Whose factory was at East Cowes, IOW) but by Vickers and designated the VA-3. It ran in the summer season of 1962(?) from Rhyl to Wallasey.

The SRN-6 (Not SRN-5 which was a smaller but lookalike) service from Southampton to West Cowes was run by British Rail Seaspeed. I had the privilege of using it once in May 1969. Quite novel entering and exiting via the front hatch!

JimCooper · Post by **JimCooper** » 21 Sep 2006, 19:02

I was born and lived on the Isle of Wight until I left home at 18!

Here is a site that complements this thread:

http://www.bartiesworld.co.uk/hovercraf ... lsrnsb.htm

regards

Jim

PeteP · Post by **PeteP** » 21 Sep 2006, 19:41

Yes, it's not a bad site that, Jim but there's one entry on the Hovertravel page that puzzles me : "On October 8th 1968 Hovertravel carried their one millionth passenger. "

Now, I'm convinced that that event happened just over a year earlier in the summer of 1967 because I was there. I even got to shake Sir Christopher Cockerell's hand that day and "Flight" magazine was there too - an article appeared shortly afterwards in the "Flight" supplement, "Air Cushion Vehicles".

I even remember how the millionth passenger was chosen. Because of the ticketing system used, there was no way of telling exactly who it was so, at mid-morning when the photographer, reporter and guests had all arrived, a photogenic passenger with her family was chosen from those waiting to board the next flight and duly presented with mementos of the event.

I'll have to contact the site owner and see if it's his info or my memory that's at fault.
Pete

kit · Post by **kit** » 24 Sep 2006, 08:40

Ah nostalgia, not what it once was

I too used the various hovercraft services to the IoW in the 60s and 70s, and even as recently as last year on the current Southsea-Ryde service.

Somewhere I have a photo of my wife doing a filmstar descent from the SRN2 (I think) that was used on trials on the route for a short while. I recall it being HUGE compared to the SRN6s which we were more used to.

In an associated note, I worked for BR in the 70s and spent some painfull hours hovering back and forth across the channel in the APU bay of various SRN4s taking oil samples from the hydraulic system. There were no doors or windows and a screaming Rover APU turbine about a foot from my head the whole time. I've had more comfortable journeys......

On the subject of FS04 hovercraft, I've played around with Hama's earlier one to try and get it to 'skid turn' like real ones do with some success. As I recall it's a matter of raising the roll stiffness to a high level to stop it banking on turns. I note his SRN6 doesn't bank at all, thank goodness, but it doesn't skid much either, and at high speed (50 kts) it's the devil to turn anyway.

I forsee some .cfg file editing coming on

In passing, I tweaked his Boeing Jetfoil in the opposite direction at the same time so that it leant MORE in the turns, and that worked a treat.

Now there's a thought for a Brit Classic connection. There was a P&O service using Jetfoils that ran from Tower Pier to Ostend in the 80s, I travelled on it once (at my employers expense

) and I'd assumed we'd go down the Thames hullborne, but not so. The Captain had her up on the foils just east of Tower Bridge and we zapped past Greenwich at about 35 kts and 20 ft off the water, leaning into the turn where The Dome is now in magnificent fashion! Pity they stopped that service.

Somewhere I have some photos of that 'aircraft', maybe a repaint in the P&O scheme may be in order.

Post by **DaveB** » 24 Sep 2006, 12:28

Hi Kit,

Be sure to post your SRN6 mods when you've done them

ATB

DaveB :tab:

Jonbouy · Post by **Jonbouy** » 25 Sep 2006, 01:38

Not wishing to be morbid but wasn't one of the Southsea SRN6's involved in a fatal crash? I'm sure I remember it being on the news at the time but searching the 'net makes me think I must have dreamt it, its like it never happened.

Can anyone here shed any light on that incident?

PeteP · Post by **PeteP** » 25 Sep 2006, 07:52

Jonbouy wrote:Can anyone here shed any light on that incident?

Yes, it happened. Bartie's hovercraft site gives the date as March 1967. It's probably my ageing memory that's wrong but I thought it was later than that. What's not in dispute is that one of Hovertravel's SR-N6s (012?) overturned off the Southsea terminal with the loss of 5 lives.
Pete

PeteP · Post by **PeteP** » 25 Sep 2006, 09:09

OK, jonbouy, further to my above post, I've now found another date of 4 March 1972 for the accident and 012 was the craft involved.

I was pretty certain 1967 was wrong because I worked for the company at Southsea terminal during the summers of '66 and '67 and I know it didn't happen during my time with them. I also recall that the craft involved was withdrawn from service and scrapped after the accident but 012 was one of two we sent to Expo '67 in Montreal in April '67.

All-in-all, the date of 4 March 1972 is probably the correct one. I applaud Bartie for his efforts in producing a hovercraft site but some of his data does seem to be inaccurate (see my post about Hovertravel's millionth passenger).
Pete