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
trolleybuses. It designed and manufactured both overhead and rail supplies for many systems in Britain prior to
World War I. 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 chassis was manufactured by
Straker-Squire, the electrical equipment by
British Thomson-Houston of
Rugby, 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 in
Yorkshire, but some were exported to
Bloemfontein, South Africa and
George Town, Penang. In April 1990, Clough Smith was purchased by
Tilbury. In October 2001, it was rebranded Interserve Rail. It has diversified into
facilities management, being awarded a five-year contract to manage 11
Network Rail 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
Charles H Roe, and the rest used a variety of bodies manufactured by
Park Royal,
Brush and Dodson. ==References==