Builders: William Denny & Bros Dumbarton 1948
Propulsion type: Twin Screw, two stroke compression ignition single acting Sulzer Winterthur engines.
Owner: British Railways
Service dates: 1948 - 1985
Tonnage: Gross 837
Comments:
The new British Railways Southern Region introduced Brading in March 1948, along with her sister Southsea, to replace the war losses of the paddlers Portsdown and Southsea. Brading & Southsea cost £320000 and were wide boats of 46' breadth, carrying up to 1400 passengers. The non reversible diesel engines gave them good manoevrability and economy and were popular with their crews. Built principally for the Portsmouth to Ryde IOW ferry service they also undertook excursion work in the summer. Brading continued in service until 1985 when there was little call for ferries that could not accomodate cars, but she was not broken up until 1995 at Portsmouth.