| Industry | Automotive Electrical engineering Facilities management |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1910 |
| Founder | Norman Clough Sidney Smith |
| Headquarters | England |
| Products | Trolleybuses Rail electrical systems |
| Brands | Straker-Clough Karrier-Clough |
| Services | Rail management |
| Parent | Interserve |
Interserve Rail (formerlyClough Smith)[1] is a British engineering and facilities management company. Founded in 1910, it is a subsidiary ofInterserve.
Clough Smith was founded in 1910 by electrical engineers Norman Clough and Sidney Smith, who moved into the manufacture of overhead power supplies forelectrical tramways andtrolleybuses. It designed and manufactured both overhead and rail supplies for many systems in Britain prior toWorld War I.[2]
Post-war, the company used the profits from completion of work on theTeesside trolley system to purchase trolleybuses which had been in storage during the war. These were immediately sold at a profit and provided a basis for the trolleybus side of the business.[2]
The general manager of the Teesside Railless Traction Board developed a new and improved trolleybus design and Clough Smith arranged for it to be manufactured It was marketed as theStraker-Clough trolley omnibus. This chassis and design came to be regarded as both pioneering and improving the industry standard.[2][3] The chassis was manufactured byStraker-Squire, the electrical equipment byBritish Thomson-Houston ofRugby, with Clough arranging the production of the bodies. The completed product was sold to system operators as part of a package deal which included the design, supply and installation of the overhead electrical equipment.[2][4]
Between October 1921 and September 1926, Clough Smith sold 63 solid-tyred trolley omnibuses. Most went to variouscorporations inYorkshire, but some were exported toBloemfontein, South Africa andGeorge Town, Penang.[2]
In 1925, Straker-Squire was placed in voluntary liquidation and subsequently into receivership. By this time,Karrier had produced the UK's first three-axle passenger vehicle aided by developments in pneumatic tyres and Clough Smith themselves had moved to pneumatic-tyred production in November 1926 with a newLL (for low-loading) model. The company subsequently entered into an arrangement with Karrier to produce theKarrier-Clough trolley omnibus which Clough would market.[2]
Karrier allocated the number E6, to this model. The contract with Karrier ended in 1933, but Clough Smith continued as a manufacturer and supplier of associated electrical equipment and was still active in the field in 1968/69, when the company removed redundant equipment from theReading system.[2]
The company subsequently diversified into cable and electrical supply, of all types, both in the UK and abroad, as well as railway signalling systems and the installation of one of the earliestfibre-optic systems forMercury Communications which was laid alongsideBritish Rail tracks.[2] It specialises in electrical and associated equipment for rail systems.[5]
In April 1990, Clough Smith was purchased byTilbury.[6] In October 2001, it was rebranded Interserve Rail.[7] It has diversified intofacilities management, being awarded a five-year contract to manage 11Network Rail stations in 2017.[8]
Of the chassis produced, 66 had bodies produced byCharles H Roe, and the rest used a variety of bodies manufactured byPark Royal,Brush and Dodson.[2]
