Welcome to my Tracked Hovercraft history project on at

the Hovertrain Experiments, Cambridge, Earith and Sutton Gault


DRAFT 1

Introduction


Three-quarters of a mile south of the hamlet of Sutton Gault in the Cambridgeshire Fens in Eastern England is a curious feature of the north-west bank of the Old Bedford River - a large loop or kink in it known as "The Gullet".

images: map: OS; satellite view: Google



It skirts around three vertical concrete slabs standing in line while the Old Bedford River keeps to its dead straight course. The slabs can be clearly seen on the Google satellite image and this photo. (The small river going around the Gullet is the Counterdrain.)
 
The casual observer may wonder what the slabs are, or were, and why the bank goes round them.

In fact the loop and the slabs are unrelated.

The loop pre-dates the slabs by more than three centuries and was a bank repair following a breach. The bank engineers of the mid-17th C found the land under the breach was porous, and moved the new bank to firmer land.

The slabs go back to 1972 and are are concrete piers, virtually all that is now visible of an elevated concrete "guideway" track planned to run between Earith and Sutton Gault on which an exciting British scientific and engineering invention, a 'tracked hovercraft', popularly called a "Hovertrain", was to be tested running at near-airliner speeds.

Luckily for inquisitive walkers, Cambridgeshire County Council erected an information board at the Gullet a few years ago which has some interesting, although not entirely accurate, information about the hovertrain experiments, but strangely not about The Gullet itself.

The site of the board is also strange, being at ankle level to those on the footpath, and on a steep slope making closer inspection to read the small print rather difficult, as my friend and fellow local historian Chris Holley demonstrates below. It is also furthest away and facing away from Sutton Gault from where most walkers approach.
all photos above: Eddy Edwards, Aug 2013

I'm Eddy Edwards, and my interest in the Hovertrain came about due to another interest, the history and operation of the Ouse Washes through which the Great Ouse River flows en-route to the sea. I first came upon the Gullet and the concrete piers in 2012 whilst using Google Earth on my PC following the line of the Old Bedford River. I couldn't remember anything about the Hovertrain experiments nor had friends or neighbours. I wondered why a piece of Britain's recent history had apparently become forgotten. I began to investigate and soon discovered it certainly hadn't been, in fact parts had been preserved at Railworld Museum in Peterborough where display boards summarised the aims and works.

However, the story was not widely known, and there was much still to be told, so I set out to try to fill some of the gaps. Since then I've met or corresponded with many people who have added pieces to the story. Some worked on the project or had relatives or friends who had; some lived nearby; one had compared our efforts with the French. I've also been helped by museum trustees, by videos of old TV films, and by Cambridgeshire historian Mike Petty who supplied contemporary newspaper cuttings and photos.

My efforts are still very much 'work-in-progress' and these private pages are intended to allow contributors to check, correct and/or add to the data they or others have provided.

This website and my reseaches are personally funded and I have not had access to the official records of any organisation involved or restricted-access online material. The following is a very brief outline of The Tracked Hovercraft Project.
 

The Project


The aim of the hovertrain developers, Tracked Hovercraft Ltd, (THL), a subsidiary of the government agency the National Research Development Corporation (NRDC), was to provide very high speed (240-300 mph) inter-city travel on dedicated guideways, with trains (or just a single carriage) transferring or connecting somehow to conventional rail lines or existing stations. Examples of envisaged journey times from London were 20 minutes to Birmingham, and under 90 minutes to Edinburgh. NRDC allocated funding of £5¼m to THL, payable in 3 tranches. Image: artists impression set in a rural area from Mecanno Magazine

The work at Cambridge and Earith by THL built on earlier work by another NRDC company, Hovercraft Developments Ltd (HDL) in Hampshire during the 1960s, combining the principle of frictionless suspension on a cushion of air (as already used on 'hovercraft') with motive power using electro-magnetism. THL themselves experimented with a scale model over a 200 feet long track near their Cambridge HQ while the facilities at Earith were under construction.

The project ended in early 1973 due to lack of further government finance when the NRDC's funding ended. Some say it was lack of vision by politicians, others that it was a pragmatic decision. Whilst THL had successfully demonstrated the principle of a large tracked vehicle powered by a linear motor, they were a long way from producing a passenger carrying prototype. The Govt also concluded it was impracticable in the UK due to the established rail infrastructure and crowded urban areas which would be better served by funding British Rail's planned 'tilting' Advanced Passenger Train (which later was also abandoned).


railway horses
Horses hauled the very first trains and still played a part even after steam, diesel and electric power were introduced.
The last BR horse was retired from shunting duties at Newmarket in 1967, a year after a model Hovercar ran at Hythe powered by a linear motor and and suspended and guided by air cushions.

Brief Chronology

year   note
1967 Tracked Hovercraft Ltd (THL) formed as subsidiary of National Research Development Corporation (NRDC), a govt agency, to take over the project from another NRDC company, Hovercraft Delelopment Ltd, which did initial tests in Hythe, nr Southampton.
£5¼m earmarked for Hovertrain test project.
200 miles of disused railway were said to have been considered as a test site, but the side of the Old Bedford River was chosen.		  
1967 July Great Ouse River Authority (GORA) agreed to lease a 20-mile strip of land for 21 years to NRDC. Test bores showed subsoil can stand the weight of the hovertrack. Lease required guideway track to be demolished when trials completed. 18
1967 July Prof. Laithwaite, inventor of the Linear Induction Motor, resigned from BR after 6 yrs as a consultant, and joined THL. 18
1968 Earith chosen as the site for a 6,300 sq.ft engineering centre and "hangar" and the start of the line running parallel with the Old Bedford River. 12
1968 Mar Admin and R&D offices set up in Ditton Walk (DW), Cambridge 12
1969 June Construction started at Earith 21
1970 Linear motor test rig run on a 200 ft straight track at DW 17
1970 June Construction of 1.2 miles of guideway track completed at Earith sufficient for initial tests 21
1970 July a beam failure occured on high-level track. 2 beams & 2 columns lost. "Track laying terminated" 21
1971 Jan guideay foundation faults discovered at Sutton Gault just ahead of where track being re-erected. 20
1971 Aug RTV31 shell delivered to Earith from Vickers-Armstrong in Swindon  
1971 Dec First public demonstration of train RTV 31 achieved 12 mph ! 4
1972 Feb Imperial College devised a new form of LIM giving magnetic levitation as well as guidance and propulsion. which worked well on a model, but power too low for full scale use  
1972 June More powerful motor fitted during 3-week overhaul
"Work going on to finish a 2 mile extension". 
Engineers now said to want a 12 mile track in order to attain 300 mph 		4
1972 Aug 72 mph achieved. "More track" (?) reportedly authorised 4, 12
1972 Nov 8 mile total test track now talked of 12
1973 Jan 107 mph achieved 5
1973 Feb Conservative Government abandoned project in favour of BR's APT, the high-speed 'Advanced Passenger Train' (tilting train). 140 (?) jobs lost due to project closure
1973 Aug Tenders invited for demolition of track 10,12
1974 Dec Earith factory put up for sale 12
1975 July RTV31 moved by road from Earith to College of Technology at Cranfield with one concrete beam 12
1975 Track dismantled. Metal removed by Larkinsons, and concrete by contractors Monk. 5
1975 July Earith factory sold 12
1996 Train and beam donated and moved to Railworld Museum at Peterborough.