THE traditional view of a locomotive works is one of large buildings, high roofs, and acres of land and sidings, so to find that one of Britain’s last standard gauge locomotive manufacturers is operating out of an industrial unit on the edge of Burton-on-Trent will probably come as a surprise to many. More so when they see the name on the side of the building: Clayton Equipment.
Whilst many will associate the company with the ill-fated Class 17s and the final assembly of the Class 47 lookalikes for Cuba in the 1960s, the company is much more than that and – unlike its many competitors that have fallen by the wayside – is still going today and still building locomotives.
90 YEARS OF HISTORY
The company can trace its history back to 1931 when it was founded by Stanley Reid Devlin, manufacturing goods and spare parts for Clayton Carriage and Wagon Equipment. Stanley had been the chief draughtsman at Clayton Carriage and Wagon but, when the firm went into receivership after the Great Depression, he set up Clayton Equipment to provide maintenance for the existing products.
The company grew and diversified, extending into war materials during the Second World War and then afterwards into farm buildings and equipment. A new large site at Hatton in Derbyshire was acquired in 1946 that allowed the company to expand, and it began to build locomotives and industrial equipment for export around the world. Clayton Equipment was acquired by International Combustion Holdings in 1957, but continued to operate as a self-contained unit, and it was during this time that the Class 17s and Cuba ‘47s’ were built.
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Esta historia es de la edición April 2020 de Rail Express.
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