Loco manufacturer celebrates milestone birthday

CLAYTON Equipment Ltd is 90 years old this year, originally established in 1931 by Stanley Reid Devlin to continue supplying spare parts and maintenance for the then recentlyclosed Clayton Wagons Ltd.

The anniversary was marked at a team meeting on May 28, when the firm's executive chairman Steve Gretton cut a celebratory cake in the shape of the latest Clayton hybrid ‘CBD90' shunting locomotive, which was shared among staff members.

A ‘OO' gauge model of this locomotive was recently announced – see Rail Express Modeller page M9.

Currently, two ‘CBD90+'s are in the final stages of build, and when completed will be off to Tata Steel at Port Talbot, bringing the complement there to five, with two more still on order. Already gone to their new home at a large multi-function nuclear site on the Cumbrian coast are two ‘CBD80' hybrid locomotives, which went north on June 7. These had been tested at the Chasewater Railway, as part of a new contract between the preserved line and Clayton.