Portland Company

thumb|right|300px|Portland Company building 6 in November 2016The Portland Company was established 10 November 1846 by John A. Poor and Norris Locomotive Works engineer Septimus Norris 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. The shops opened for business in October, 1847. 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.
==5'6"-gauge locomotives for the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railroad==
Works number	Date 	Type 	Weight 	Drivers	Cylinders	A&StL#	Name 	GTR #
2 	September 1848 	4-4-0	23 tons	60" 	15x22 	1 	Montreal 	101
5 	30 December 1848 	4-4-0	23 tons	60" 	15x22 	2 	Machigonne 	102
6 	24 February 1849 	4-4-0	22 tons	60" 	15x22 	3 	(1st) Oxford 	103
8 	16 May 1849 	4-4-0	24 tons	60" 	14x20 	4 	William P. Preble	104
13 	30 December 1949 	4-4-0	22 tons	66" 	15x20 	5 	Waterville 	105
14 	1 February 1850 	4-4-0	22 tons	66" 	15x20 	6 	Coos 	106
18 	1850 	4-4-0	25 tons	60" 	15x20 	26 	Jenny Lind 	
19 	January 1851 	4-4-0	22 tons	60" 	15x20 	7 	Felton 	107
20 	June 1851 	4-4-0	24 tons	54" 	17x22 	8 	Railway King 	108
28 	December 1851 	4-4-0	22 tons	60" 	14x20 	9 	Casco 	109
29 	January 1852 	4-4-0	22 tons	66" 	15x20 	10 	Forest City 	110
30 	March 1852 	4-4-0	20 tons	60" 	13x20 	11 	Danville 	111
31 	1852 	4-4-0	23 tons	60" 	13x20 	27 	Consuelo 	
32 	May 1852 	4-4-0	22 tons	60" 	14x22 	12 	Falmouth 	112
36 	11 November 1852 	4-4-0	22 tons	60" 	15x20 	13 	Daniel Webster 	113
40 	January 1853 	4-4-0	24 tons	60" 	16x22 	14 	Cumberland 	114
41 	April 1853 	4-4-0	24 tons	60" 	16x22 	17 	Norway 	117
42 	27 January 1853 	4-4-0	21 tons	66" 	14x22 	15 	Nulhegan 	115
43 	11 April 1853 	4-4-0	23 tons	72" 	15x22 	16 	Paris 	116
44 	24 June 1853 	4-4-0	23 tons	66" 	15x22 	20 	Gloucester 	120
45 	23 May 1853 	4-4-0	24 tons	60" 	15x22 	18 	Yarmouth 	118
46 	June 1853 	4-4-0	24 tons	60" 	15x22 	19 	Amonoosuc 	119
48 	20 September 1853	4-4-0	24 tons	60" 	16x22 	21 	Vermont 	121
49 	16 November 1853 	4-4-0	22 tons	72" 	14x22 	22 	Gorham 	122
56 	1 December 1853 	4-4-0	23 tons	72" 	15x22 	23 	J.S.Little 	123
==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 October 1890 	0-4-4 Forney locomotive	18 tons	Phillips and Rangeley Railroad 	1 	became Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railroad #7
616 	22 October 1890	0-4-4 Forney locomotive	18 tons	Sandy River Railroad 	4 	became Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railroad #5
621 	December 1890 	0-4-4 Forney locomotive	 	Kennebec Central Railroad 	2 	
622 	2 May 1891 	0-4-4 Forney locomotive	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 	0-4-4 Forney locomotive	19 tons	Bridgton and Saco River Railroad	3 	became Kennebec Central Railroad #3 then Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington Railway #8
626 	November 1894 	0-4-4 Forney locomotive	19 tons	Wiscasset and Quebec Railroad 	2 	
627 	November 1894 	0-4-4 Forney locomotive	19 tons	Wiscasset and Quebec Railroad 	3 	
628 	November 1906 	2-4-4 Forney locomotive	27 tons	Bridgton and Saco River Railroad	5 	
==Preserved Portland locomotives==
The following locomotives built by Portland have been preserved.
Serial number	Wheel arrangement
(Whyte notation)	Build date	Operational owner(s) 	Disposition
233 	4-4-0 	1872 	Grand Trunk Railway number 40	Canada Science and Technology Museum
622 	0-4-4T Forney locomotive	2 May 1891	Sandy River Railroad number 5
Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railroad number 6
Kennebec Central Railroad number 4
Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington Railway number 9	Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington Railway
==Archives and records==
*Portland Company records at Baker Library Special Collections, Harvard Business School.
==External links==
*photos from 1949 made by Leyland Whipple, a talented photographer who worked there as a quality control technician
Category:Locomotive manufacturers
Category:Companies
Category:Defunct companies
Category:United States