Clearwater Features

Clearwater Features Ltd. was a company in Clearwater Studios in Battersea and later at Shepperton that produced the first two series of Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends with Central Independent Television between 1984 and 1986 for The Britt Allcroft Company. It is also known for creating TUGS.

History
Clearwater Features was founded in 1979 by Robert D. Cardona and David Mitton, the latter of whom did most of the work on Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends. The company produced many commercials, six hundred top-rating television programs, two feature films, and three television movies. It closed down on 31 December 1990 after eleven years at work because of TUGS' end of production. When Britt Allcroft returned from the United States, she purchased the models and sets used for TUGS. Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends remained produced by Gullane Entertainment (named as The Britt Allcroft Company in the beginning) from 1991 to 2003.

Trivia

 * When the studio closed, David Mitton went to work for Gullane Entertainment and Robert D. Cardona went to live in Canada and worked on Theodore Tugboat and provided restored footage of TUGS for Salty's Lighthouse, which involved edited and re-dubbed TUGS episodes.
 * The production logo of Clearwater Features was an Cadillac car parked at a film studio with palm trees.
 * Clearwater's logo appeared on every episode of Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends from the first two series until 1993 (first series) and 1991 (second series).
 * In the TUGS episode, Regatta, a barge that reproduces the company logo appeared.