The 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. Portland Company built the engines of the civil war side-wheel gunboats and .Switzer, November 1964, p.85 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 marine-oriented, with a small marina, several marine and other office tenants and the Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad Co. & Museum.

The Portland Company building is the only intact 19th-century industrial structure on the Portland waterfront, and an area which has become known as Portland Foreside. In February 2016, Portland City Council voted to approve the creation of a historic district which would permit a developer to demolish the former erecting shop in the complex but preserve seven other buildings during the creation of a public plaza. Six months later, the developer asked to move the main building, built in 1895 and formerly known as the Pattern Storehouse, in order to add a road, parking garage and mixed-use buildings in the complex.

, one of the buildings is the home of the restaurant Twelve.

-gauge locomotives for the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railroad

Works numberDateTypeWeightDriversCylindersA&StL#NameGTR #2September 18484-4-023 tons60"15x221Montreal101530 December 18484-4-023 tons60"15x222Machigonne102624 February 18494-4-022 tons60"15x223(1st) Oxford103816 May 18494-4-024 tons60"14x204William P. Preble1041330 December 19494-4-022 tons66"15x205Waterville105141 February 18504-4-022 tons66"15x206Coos1061818504-4-025 tons60"15x2026Jenny Lind19January 18514-4-022 tons60"15x207Felton10720June 18514-4-024 tons54"17x228Railway King10828December 18514-4-022 tons60"14x209Casco10929January 18524-4-022 tons66"15x2010Forest City11030March 18524-4-020 tons60"13x2011Danville1113118524-4-023 tons60"13x2027Consuelo32May 18524-4-022 tons60"14x2212Falmouth1123611 November 18524-4-022 tons60"15x2013Daniel Webster11340January 18534-4-024 tons60"16x2214Cumberland11441April 18534-4-024 tons60"16x2217Norway1174227 January 18534-4-021 tons66"14x2215Nulhegan1154311 April 18534-4-023 tons72"15x2216Paris1164424 June 18534-4-023 tons66"15x2220Gloucester1204523 May 18534-4-024 tons60"15x2218Yarmouth11846June 18534-4-024 tons60"15x2219Amonoosuc1194820 September 18534-4-024 tons60"16x2221Vermont1214916 November 18534-4-022 tons72"14x2222Gorham122561 December 18534-4-023 tons72"15x2223J.S.Little123

Two-foot gauge locomotives In 1890, the Portland Company acquired patterns used by the Hinkley Locomotive Works for its two-foot gauge locomotives. Portland improved the pattern into the most successful design on Maine's two-foot gauge railroads. The Portland design retained ornate Victorian features including capped domes and a cab roof with reversing curvature. The first of the design was the heaviest and most powerful locomotive on any of the Maine two-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. The Portland Company was the dominant manufacturer of freight cars for the Maine two-foot gauge railroads between 1890 and 1907.

The final two-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 numberDateTypeWeightRailroadNumberNotes6157 October 18900-4-4 Forney locomotive18 tonsPhillips and Rangeley Railroad1became Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railroad #761622 October 18900-4-4 Forney locomotive18 tonsSandy River Railroad4became Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railroad #5621December 18900-4-4 Forney locomotiveKennebec Central Railroad26222 May 18910-4-4 Forney locomotive18 tonsSandy River Railroad5became Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railroad #6 then Kennebec Central Railroad #4 then Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington Railway #9, preserved in operational condition at WW&F Railway Museum62414 April 18920-4-4 Forney locomotive19 tonsBridgton and Saco River Railroad3became Kennebec Central Railroad #3 then Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington Railway #8626November 18940-4-4 Forney locomotive19 tonsWiscasset and Quebec Railroad2627November 18940-4-4 Forney locomotive19 tonsWiscasset and Quebec Railroad3628November 19062-4-4 Forney locomotive27 tonsBridgton and Saco River Railroad5

Preserved Portland locomotives The following locomotives built by Portland have been preserved.

Serial numberWheel arrangement(Whyte notation)Build dateOperational owner(s)Disposition 233 4-4-0 1872 Grand Trunk Railway number 40 On display at the Canada Science and Technology Museum 622 0-4-4T Forney locomotive 2 May 1891 Sandy River Railroad number 5Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railroad number 6Kennebec Central Railroad number 4Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington Railway number 9 Operational at the Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington Railway

References

Notes

Archives and records Portland Company records at Baker Library Special Collections, Harvard Business School.

External links photos from 1949 made by Leyland Whipple, a photographer who worked there as a quality control technician