Interserve Rail (formerly Clough Smith) is a British engineering and facilities management company. Founded in 1910, it is a subsidiary of

Interserve Interserve is a British construction and support services business based in Reading, Berkshire, which went into administration in 2019 and which is expected to be wound up in 2024. At that time, the group generated revenue of £2.2 billion and h ...

History

Clough Smith was founded in 1910 by electrical engineers Norman Clough and Sidney Smith, who moved into the manufacture of overhead power supplies for electrical tramways and

trolleybus A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tramin the 1910s and 1920sJoyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems'', pp. 9, 12. London: Ian Allan Publishing. .or troll ...

es. It designed and manufactured both overhead and rail supplies for many systems in Britain prior to

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. Post-war, the company used the profits from completion of work on the Teesside 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. 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 the ''Straker-Clough trolley omnibus''. This chassis and design came to be regarded as both pioneering and improving the industry standard. The chassis was manufactured by Straker-Squire, the electrical equipment by

British Thomson-Houston British Thomson-Houston (BTH) was a British engineering and heavy industrial company, based at Rugby, Warwickshire, England, and founded as a subsidiary of the General Electric Company (GE) of Schenectady, New York, United States. They were kno ...

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

, 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. Between October 1921 and September 1926, Clough Smith sold 63 solid-tyred trolley omnibuses. Most went to various

corporations A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and r ...

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

, but some were exported to

Bloemfontein Bloemfontein, ( ; , "fountain of flowers") also known as Bloem, is one of South Africa's three capital cities and the capital of the Free State (province), Free State province. It serves as the country's judicial capital, along with legisla ...

, South Africa and

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. In 1925, Straker-Squire was placed in voluntary liquidation and subsequently into receivership. By this time,

Karrier Karrier was a British marque of motorised municipal appliances and light commercial vehicles and trolley buses manufactured at Karrier Works, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, by Clayton and Co., Huddersfield, Limited. They began making Karrier moto ...

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 new ''LL'' (for low-loading) model. The company subsequently entered into an arrangement with Karrier to produce the ''Karrier-Clough trolley omnibus'' which Clough would market. 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 the Reading system. 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 earliest

fibre-optic An optical fiber, or optical fibre in Commonwealth English, is a flexible, transparent fiber made by drawing glass (silica) or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a human hair. Optical fibers are used most often as a means to ...

systems for

Mercury Communications Mercury Communications was a national telephone company in the United Kingdom, formed in 1981 as a subsidiary of Cable & Wireless, to challenge the then-monopoly of British Telecom (BT). Although it proved only moderately successful at challe ...

which was laid alongside

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

tracks. It specialises in electrical and associated equipment for rail systems. In April 1990, Clough Smith was purchased by

Tilbury Tilbury is a port town in the borough of Thurrock, Essex, England. The present town was established as separate settlement in the late 19th century, on land that was mainly part of Chadwell St Mary. It contains a 16th century fort and an ancie ...

. In October 2001, it was rebranded Interserve Rail. It has diversified into

facilities management Facility management or facilities management (FM) is a professional management discipline focused on the efficient and effective delivery of logistics and other support services related to real property and buildings. It encompasses multiple disc ...

, being awarded a five-year contract to manage 11

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's leng ...

stations in 2017.

Trolleybus chassis

*Straker-Clough solid tyred model, chassis Nos. 1–63: Production 1921–1926 *Straker-Clough pneumatic-tyred (LL model)., chassis Nos. 64–93: Production 1926/1927 *Karrier-Clough pneumatic-tyred model, chassis Nos. 54001–44: Production 1927–1932 Of the chassis produced, 66 had bodies produced by

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, and the rest used a variety of bodies manufactured by

Park Royal Park Royal is an area in North West London, England, partly in the London Borough of Brent and partly the London Borough of Ealing. It is the site of the largest business park in London, but despite intensive existing use, the area is, toget ...

Brush A brush is a common tool with bristles, wire or other filaments. It generally consists of a handle or block to which filaments are affixed in either a parallel or perpendicular orientation, depending on the way the brush is to be gripped durin ...

and Dodson.

References

{{Automotive industry in the United Kingdom Construction and civil engineering companies of England Trolleybus manufacturers 1910 establishments in England Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1910 Companies based in Birmingham, West Midlands Bus manufacturers of the United Kingdom Electric vehicle manufacturers of the United Kingdom British companies established in 1910 Construction and civil engineering companies established in 1910