A kid living in Texas I was always fascinated by the SRN4. Missed the chance of a lifetime in '76 when the parents decided we'd take a 737 instead - boooooring. To this day I still can't believe this company had the stones to build and operate this incredible hovercraft service.
Great to see this video brings back a lot of memories when my mum & Dad took us on holiday in 1970 on the hovercraft from Ramsgate to Calais , only took 40 mins .. good days ..
Some fantastic footage. I love the scenes of the HoverLloyd craft passing and racing each other in the Channel. What an exciting era it was. Extraordinary to think this great British passenger transport invention, like Concorde, was consigned to history.
Only twice in my life did I visit Britain, with my parents and my sister, on holidays sometime during the late 1970s / early 1980s. Too bad I threw away several old hovercraft information booklets and boarding tickets which my parents had kept all those decades. The first year we crossed the channel in one of those huge SRN4s, we were in Ramsgate before we knew it. The following year we took a normal ferry. The trip lasted many hours and I remember I got a little bit sick
i lived in cliffsend, a walk away from here, remember these very well, and remember after it was closed, going inside the old buildings when it was deselated.
The tunnel killed it. But, there may still be use for it yet. Down on the ice shelf, in Antarctica, they currently use tractors pulling cargo sleds and cargo "carpets" loaded with fuel bladders, for the generators down there. Fuel is the lifeline down on the Bottom. Unfortunately, those tractors only travel at a top speed of 6Km/h. Imagine how much more could be hauled & done, with the SR-N4 , in a day instead of a week. They need this down in the "white desert".
People blame the tunnel or the end of duty free, but by 1994 (when the tunnel opened) these crafts were already far too costly to operate. Fuel inefficient, they also could not take freight (which the SeaCats and later Super SeaCats did).....prone to seasonal fluctuations too as only profitable in the summer.
Mrs Richards: " I paid for a room with a view!" Basil: (pointing to the lovely view) "That is Torquay, Madam." Mrs Richards: "It's not good enough!" Basil: "May I ask what you were expecting to see out of a Torquay hotel bedroom window? Sydney Opera House, perhaps? the Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically past?..." Mrs Richards: "Don't be silly! I expect to be able to see the sea!" Basil: "You can see the sea, it's over there between the land and the sky." Mrs Richards: "I'm not satisfied. But I shall stay. But I expect a reduction." Basil: "Why?! Because Krakatoa's not erupting at the moment?
A kid living in Texas I was always fascinated by the SRN4. Missed the chance of a lifetime in '76 when the parents decided we'd take a 737 instead - boooooring. To this day I still can't believe this company had the stones to build and operate this incredible hovercraft service.
So cool, so British, BRING THEM BACK!
At 2 quid a litre we have no chance 😂😂😂
@@chezjervisdcfcNew engines and vastly improved aerodynamics will make the difference for sure BRING THEM BACK
Great to see this video brings back a lot of memories when my mum & Dad took us on holiday in 1970 on the hovercraft from Ramsgate to Calais , only took 40 mins .. good days ..
Some fantastic footage. I love the scenes of the HoverLloyd craft passing and racing each other in the Channel. What an exciting era it was. Extraordinary to think this great British passenger transport invention, like Concorde, was consigned to history.
fantastic, we used to use this for our holidays. So exciting for a kid
love it, "unobtrusively come to power", you could hear them spooling up across the town!
What I remember as a kid you cold not see out of the window due to the spray, very bumpy and noisy and that smell of fuel was nice lol
Only twice in my life did I visit Britain, with my parents and my sister, on holidays sometime during the late 1970s / early 1980s. Too bad I threw away several old hovercraft information booklets and boarding tickets which my parents had kept all those decades. The first year we crossed the channel in one of those huge SRN4s, we were in Ramsgate before we knew it. The following year we took a normal ferry. The trip lasted many hours and I remember I got a little bit sick
i lived in cliffsend, a walk away from here, remember these very well, and remember after it was closed, going inside the old buildings when it was deselated.
Hot chocolate on board and buying duty free perfume were lovely memories; the sound a board was the best though! :-)
thank you for this wow great memories
I Grabbed this from Talking pictures TV In UK
The tunnel killed it. But, there may still be use for it yet. Down on the ice shelf, in Antarctica, they currently use tractors pulling cargo sleds and cargo "carpets" loaded with fuel bladders, for the generators down there. Fuel is the lifeline down on the Bottom. Unfortunately, those tractors only travel at a top speed of 6Km/h. Imagine how much more could be hauled & done, with the SR-N4 , in a day instead of a week. They need this down in the "white desert".
In my case the hostess bought me some sick bags 😂
thank you for the film
People blame the tunnel or the end of duty free, but by 1994 (when the tunnel opened) these crafts were already far too costly to operate. Fuel inefficient, they also could not take freight (which the SeaCats and later Super SeaCats did).....prone to seasonal fluctuations too as only profitable in the summer.
There was such great enthusiasm in those days, the future looked bright.
Bloke in the brown jacket and cravat wants to climb over his fellow travellers.
I never thought there was six of them, I thought it was two at dover and three at Ramsgate.
Mrs Richards: " I paid for a room with a view!"
Basil: (pointing to the lovely view) "That is Torquay, Madam."
Mrs Richards: "It's not good enough!"
Basil: "May I ask what you were expecting to see out of a Torquay hotel bedroom window? Sydney Opera House, perhaps? the Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically past?..."
Mrs Richards: "Don't be silly! I expect to be able to see the sea!"
Basil: "You can see the sea, it's over there between the land and the sky."
Mrs Richards: "I'm not satisfied. But I shall stay. But I expect a reduction."
Basil: "Why?! Because Krakatoa's not erupting at the moment?
Múito Bom Gostei
lol _"unobtrusively to full power"_ with four roaring gas turbine engines....
What was the names of the hovercrafts out of Pegwell Bay
Swift and Sure
And Sir Christopher.
@@dfolt And the Prince of Wales
@@scottharvey-robinson7488 You are right. As I have never travelled on The Prince of Wales, I was somehow totally unaware of the ill-fated GH-2054.