Portland Company

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The Portland Company was established in 1846 as a locomotive foundry to build railroad equipment for the adjacent Portland terminus of the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railroad connection between Portland, Maine and Montreal. Its first locomotive, the Augusta, emerged from the shops in July 1848 for delivery to the Portland, Saco & Portsmouth (later part of the Boston and Maine Railroad). Over the next several decades, the Company produced in its Fore Street facilities over 600 steam locomotives as well as 160 merchant and naval vessels, railcars, construction equipment, Knox automobiles, and the like. Taking into account its other products, the Company could lay claim to being one of the leading medium-to-heavy steel manufacturers in New England. The company ceased production in 1978.

Presently, according to The Portland Company Complex website, the site has become a marine-oriented complex with a small marina, several marine as well as other office tenants and the Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad Co. & Museum.

[edit] 5'6"-gauge Locomotives for the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railroad

Works number	Date	Type	Weight	Drivers	Cylinders	A&StL#
2	Sept 1848	4-4-0	23 tons	60"	15x22	1
5	30 Dec 1848	4-4-0	23 tons	60"	15x22	2
6	24 Feb 1849	4-4-0	22 tons	60"	15x22	3
8	16 May 1849	4-4-0	24 tons	60"	14x20	4
13	30 Dec 1949	4-4-0	22 tons	66"	15x20	5
14	1 Feb 1850	4-4-0	22 tons	66"	15x20	6
18	1850	4-4-0	25 tons	60"	15x20	26
19	Jan 1851	4-4-0	22 tons	60"	15x20	7
20	June 1851	4-4-0	24 tons	54"	17x22	8
28	Dec 1851	4-4-0	22 tons	60"	14x20	9
29	Jan 1852	4-4-0	22 tons	66"	15x20	10
30	March 1852	4-4-0	20 tons	60"	13x20	11
31	1852	4-4-0	23 tons	60"	13x20	27
32	May 1852	4-4-0	22 tons	60"	14x22	12
36	11 Nov 1852	4-4-0	22 tons	60"	15x20	13
40	Jan 1853	4-4-0	24 tons	60"	16x22	14
41	April 1853	4-4-0	24 tons	60"	16x22	17
42	27 Jan 1853	4-4-0	21 tons	66"	14x22	15
43	11 April 1853	4-4-0	23 tons	72"	15x22	16
44	24 June 1853	4-4-0	23 tons	66"	15x22	20
45	23 May 1853	4-4-0	24 tons	60"	15x22	18
46	June 1853	4-4-0	24 tons	60"	15x22	19
48	20 Sept 1853	4-4-0	24 tons	60"	16x22	21
49	16 Nov 1853	4-4-0	22 tons	72"	14x22	22
56	1 Dec 1853	4-4-0	23 tons	72"	15x22	23

[edit] Two-Foot Gauge Locomotives

In 1890, The Portland Company acquired patterns used by the Hinkley Locomotive Works for 2-foot gauge locomotives. Portland improved the pattern into the most successful design on Maine's 2-foot gauge railroads. The Portland design retained ornate Victorian features including capped domes and a cab roof with graceful reversing curvature. The first of the design was the heaviest and most powerful locomotive on any of the Maine 2-foot gauge railroads at the time of delivery. Portland locomotives became the standard for passenger service as larger freight engines were built. Portland locomotives were subsequently used for yard service and on lines with lighter rail. Portland Company was the dominant manufacturer of freight cars for the Maine 2-foot gauge railroads between 1890 and 1907.

The final 2-foot gauge locomotive built by The Portland Company was a less successful enlargement of the original design. Vulcan Iron Works built two modernized versions of Portland's basic design for the Monson Railroad in 1913 and 1918 after Portland Company ceased manufacture of railway locomotives. The basic Portland design pulled the last Kennebec Central Railroad train in 1929, the last Wiscasset, Waterville, and Farmington Railway train in 1933, and the last Monson Railroad train in 1943.

Works number	Date	Type	Weight	Railroad	Number	Notes
615	7 Oct 1890	0-4-4T	18 tons	Phillips and Rangeley Railroad	1	became Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railroad #7
616	22 Oct 1890	0-4-4T	18 tons	Sandy River Railroad	4	became Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railroad #5
621	Dec 1890	0-4-4T		Kennebec Central Railroad	2
622	2 May 1891	0-4-4T	18 tons	Sandy River Railroad	5	became Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railroad #6 then Kennebec Central Railroad #4 then Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington Railway #9 preserved WW&F Railway Museum
624	14 April 1892	0-4-4T	19 tons	Bridgton and Saco River Railroad	3	became Kennebec Central Railroad #3 then Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington Railway #8
626	Nov 1894	0-4-4T	19 tons	Wiscasset and Quebec Railroad	2
627	Nov 1894	0-4-4T	19 tons	Wiscasset and Quebec Railroad	3
628	Nov 1906	2-4-4T	27 tons	Bridgton and Saco River Railroad	5

[edit] References

Crittenden, H. Temple (1976). The Maine Scenic Route. McClain Printing.
Moody, Linwood W. (1959). The Maine Two-Footers. Howell-North.
Cornwall, L. Peter and Farrell, Jack W. (1973). Ride the Sandy River. Pacific Fast Mail.
Jones, Robert C. (1979). Two Feet Between the Rails (Volume 1 - The Early Years). Sundance Books.
Jones, Robert C. (1980). Two Feet Between the Rails (Volume II - The Mature Years). Sundance Books.
Jones, Robert C. and Register, David L. (1987). Two Feet to Tidewater The Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railway. Pruett Publishing Company.
Jones, Robert C. (1993). Two Feet to the Lakes. Pacific Fast Mail.
Jones, Robert C. (1999). Two Feet to Togus. Evergreen Press.
Barney, Peter S. (1986). The Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington Railway: A Technical and Pictorial Review. A&M Publishing.
Meade, Edgar T., Jr. (1968). Busted and Still Running. The Stephen Greene Press.
Alexander, E.P. (1941). Iron Horses. Bonanza Books.
Holt, Jeff (1986). The Grand Trunk in New England. Railfare.
Johnson, Ron (undated). Maine Central R.R. Mountain Division. 470 Railroad Club.