Maine Central Steam Locomotives: History & Roster

Published: September 22, 2026

Maine Central steam was a Ten-Wheeler railroad that grew a Pacific, a Mikado, and then stopped. Sixty-seven 4-6-0s were built for the company in the twentieth century, more than twice as many as any other road-engine type. The heaviest freight engines it bought new were thirty-two Mikados. The last new steam was a pair of light Hudsons in 1930, Pacific-sized 4-6-4s with a booster. Drury records the order as two engines and leaves the reason open. The official last steam run was June 13, 1954, when Pacific 470 took an excursion from Portland to Bangor and back.

George H. Drury, in Guide to North American Steam Locomotives, is the post-1900 class grid below. In 1900 the railroad adopted letter classes, several of them for each wheel arrangement then on the property, keyed to cylinder diameter. Subclass numbers were applied two ways and neither way stuck. One appended a figure such as 65 or 70 that was a tonnage rating. The other, used by the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society roster and by Drury, was a plain sequence: O, O-1, O-2.

Maine Central 2-8-2s 606 and 622 and Crawford Notch NH in 1950

Maine Central 2-8-2 #622 and #606 are on the Mountain Division at Crawford Notch, New Hampshire on a May morning in 1950 shortly after the pair had worked helper service through the Notch. They will soon return to Barlett to await their next assignment. Robert Gustafson photo.

On this page: At a glance · Before 1900 · Ten-Wheelers · Consolidations and Mikados · Pacifics and Hudsons · Switchers and Portland Terminal · Post-1900 roster

At a glance

Item	Detail
Railroad	Maine Central. Mark MEC. Slogan The Pine Tree Route
This page	Steam after 1900, Drury’s class grid, plus the Portland Terminal engines he treats with them
Shops	Waterville, on the Kennebec
Modern power	21 Pacifics, 32 Mikados, 28 Consolidations, 2 Hudsons
Oddities	Four ex-Boston & Maine 2-6-6-2s on Crawford Notch. Eight ex-Boston & Maine 2-10-2s. Two Baldwin 4-6-4s
Last new steam	Hudsons 701 and 702, Baldwin, 1930
Last steam	June 13, 1954. Class C-3 Pacific 470, Portland–Bangor excursion
Preserved	470, under restoration by the New England Steam Corporation at Washington Junction, Hancock
Diesel roster	All-time diesel roster

Before 1900

The 1862 railroad inherited a mixed fleet from the Androscoggin & Kennebec, the Penobscot & Kennebec, and then from the Portland & Kennebec, the European & North American, and a shelf of short lines. Americans and Moguls did the work. In 1900 the mechanical department wiped the numbers clean and sorted what remained into letter classes. The 0-6-0s were renumbered again in 1917 and in 1920, and numbers that a transferred switcher had just vacated were handed to a new one, as if a road number were too useful to retire. William D. Edson’s all-time list is Railroad History 152 (Spring 1985). Drury’s table, and the grid on this page, starts with engines built since 1900.

The railroad bought in small annual lots, six or a dozen engines of several types, rather than in the fifties and hundreds of a trunk line. In 1912 the delivery was seven Consolidations, two Pacifics, and switchers. In 1913 it was eight Consolidations, two Pacifics, and more switchers. In 1914 it was four Consolidations, two Pacifics, and the first Mikados. That habit lasted until the early 1920s. After the First World War the annual order stopped. A few modern engines arrived in 1923 and 1924. The Hudsons of 1930 were the end.

Ten-Wheelers

Few railroads kept great numbers of both Moguls and Ten-Wheelers. The Maine Central chose the 4-6-0. Drury counts sixty-seven of them built in the twentieth century.

Four class C engines were small freight power on 55-inch drivers. Numbers 106 and 107 weighed 104,000 pounds. Numbers 108 and 109 weighed 115,000. The letter C was used again, later, for the Pacifics. The N-class Ten-Wheelers were passenger engines, classed together because they shared 19-inch cylinders. Numbers 279–283 had 69-inch drivers and weighed 142,000 pounds. Numbers 284–289 had 73-inch drivers and weighed 156,000 pounds. The Pacifics began replacing them in 1907.

The O class was the dual-service and branch-line engine, 63-inch drivers and 21-by-26-inch cylinders. The 1903 and 1905 engines, 351–363, had inside piston valves and Stephenson valve gear and weighed about 164,000 pounds. Numbers 364–372, built at Rhode Island in 1906, had outside piston valves and Walschaerts gear and were about 3,000 pounds heavier. Baldwin’s 373–382, of 1907 and 1908, carried larger boilers and weighed 179,300 pounds. The design was so useful on light branches that the railroad was still ordering it in 1923. Lima built 383–390 that year, the only Lima steam locomotives the Maine Central ever owned. They kept the 63-inch drivers, dropped to 20-by-28-inch cylinders and Baker valve gear, and weighed 182,000 pounds. That was a year before Lima began arguing, with the Super-Power demonstrator, that a four-wheel trailing truck was the way to a larger firebox. Drury notes that 182,000 pounds was 24,000 pounds under the big passenger Ten-Wheelers of 1918.

Those twelve, 401–412, are the O-3s. The United States Railroad Administration allowed them during federal control because a Maine Central Pacific was smaller than a USRA light Pacific. Schenectady delivered eight in 1918 and four in 1920. They had 67-inch drivers, 22-by-28-inch cylinders, a weight of 206,500 pounds, and 32,700 pounds of tractive effort. They were main-line passenger engines on a freight wheel arrangement, and at 206,500 pounds they were large Ten-Wheelers.

The twentieth-century Moguls were a short list next to that: eight from Schenectady, 308–315, and four from Manchester, 316–319, about the size of a Boston & Maine B-15, plus two heavier 58-inch-driver engines that arrived with the Portland & Rumford Falls lease in 1907.

Consolidations and Mikados

Consolidations began in 1910. Class W, 501–509, had 63-inch drivers and 22-by-28-inch cylinders. Class W-1, 510–524, of 1912 and 1913, and class W-2, 525–528, of 1914, kept the drivers and went to 23-by-28-inch cylinders. They were the heavy freight engine until the Mikado.

In 1910 the Boston & Maine bought four oil-burning 2-6-6-2s, Alco-Schenectady works numbers 48648–48651, for helper service through the Hoosac Tunnel. Electrification made them redundant within a year. The Maine Central took them in late 1911 and early 1912, numbered them 1201–1204, class X, converted them to coal, and put them on the two-percent grade through Crawford Notch, as road engines and as helpers. Later they worked the occasional Portland–Bangor freight, and one was leased to the New Haven in the winter of 1919–1920. Three were scrapped in 1929. Number 1203, given a superheater while it was being repaired after a head-on collision, remained in service until 1931. Drury is the date used here. A Railway & Locomotive Historical Society account puts that survivor as late as 1935.

The first Mikados, 601–603, came from Schenectady in 1914. They had 63-inch drivers and 26½-by-30-inch cylinders and weighed 298,000 pounds, about the size of a USRA light Mikado with roughly 3,000 pounds less tractive effort. Seven more followed in 1915, six in 1916, and four in 1918. In 1919 the USRA assigned the railroad six light 2-8-2s, 621–626, class S-1, and the Maine Central classed them with the Mikados it already had. In 1924 it went back to its own drawing for 627–632, the same general engine plus a booster, which raised the weight to 298,000 pounds on that batch and tractive effort, with the booster, to about 60,400 pounds. Boosters were later applied to 605, 606, 609, 611, 615, 616, and 626 as well. Thirty-two Mikados, 601–632, were the modern freight fleet. They were gone by 1953.

Class A was eight Boston & Maine 2-10-2s, numbered 651–658, acquired between the mid-1930s and the mid-1940s. Documented examples are 651, ex-Boston & Maine 3000; 652, ex-3008; 653, ex-3017; and 655, ex-3020. Every Santa Fe on the roster was a former Boston & Maine engine.

Pacifics and Hudsons

Pacifics started in 1907, three years before the Boston & Maine bought its first 4-6-2. All twenty-one were Schenectady engines, numbered 450–470 as they arrived. Numbers 450 and 451 had 73-inch drivers, 22-by-28-inch cylinders, and a weight of 210,000 pounds, light as Pacifics go. By 463–465, delivered in 1914 as class C-2, the weight was 238,500 pounds, still under the Boston & Maine’s contemporary P-2 with the same size drivers and cylinders.

The five C-3s were the modern passenger engines. Numbers 466–468 came in 1917 and 469 and 470 in 1924, with boosters, 73-inch drivers, and, as built, 25-inch cylinders and a weight around 260,000 pounds. They were rebuilt in 1933 and 1934 with 24-inch cylinders and 195 pounds of boiler pressure. Number 470, works number 65555, was delivered in May 1924 at a billed price of $62,296.90. For thirty years it handled the Gull, the Bar Harbor Express, the Kennebec, and the local passenger trains. On June 13, 1954, it drew the farewell excursion from Portland to Bangor and back. It was retired four days later and placed on display at Waterville. The New England Steam Corporation removed it from that plinth in 2016. It is under restoration at Washington Junction in Hancock, beside the Downeast Scenic Railroad.

The two Hudsons have always been the puzzle. Baldwin delivered 701 and 702 in 1930. Like Pacifics 469 and 470 they had 73-inch drivers. Their cylinders, 23 by 28 inches, were smaller than the C-3s as built, and 240 pounds of boiler pressure made up for it. Grate area was only 62.6 square feet, less than many Pacifics carried. Engine weight was 312,590 pounds. Tractive effort was 41,300 pounds, plus 12,000 for the booster. They were the lightest 4-6-4s built up to that time. Only the Baltimore & Ohio’s Lord Baltimore and the National of Mexico’s Hudsons weighed less. They were Pacific-sized Hudsons.

Drury’s reading of the order is the one that fits the railroad. Passenger traffic was still growing at the end of the 1920s, and the Maine Central was in the market for a larger passenger engine. A heavy Pacific would have pressed the bridges. A Mountain would have spread the weight and added a long rigid wheelbase. A light 4-6-4 with a booster gave eight-driver starting effort and one more axle under the firebox. The railroad kept 701 and 702 on the Portland–Bangor main. The Boston & Maine let them run through on both of its routes to Portland and rated them above its own P-4s. The Maine Central, for its part, held those heavy Boston & Maine Pacifics to the same Portland–Bangor territory. Both Hudsons were retired in 1955. Portland Terminal had the use of 702 in the yards, a movable boiler for melting snow.

Switchers and Portland Terminal

Maine Central 0-6-0s ran from about 90,000 pounds to about 165,000. The heavy ones, 167–180, built between 1916 and 1920, were roughly USRA 0-6-0 size, and the railroad did receive a pair of the USRA engines themselves. When Portland Terminal was formed in 1911, a number of the older six-wheel switchers were assigned to it. The 0-6-0s were renumbered in 1917 and again in 1920. In 1946 the Maine Central bought a single 0-8-0 from the Boston & Maine, the only eight-wheel switcher on its own roster.

Portland Terminal bought twelve 0-6-0s of its own between 1912 and 1920, then two Boston & Maine 0-8-0s in 1935. In 1951 it sold four 0-6-0s back to the Boston & Maine. Its single 4-6-4 was Maine Central 702, kept as a steam supply. Drury’s chapter prints the Portland Terminal number grid on the same page as the Maine Central’s. The assignments and the resales are clearer than a second table of renumbered 0-6-0s, so they stay in this section.

Post-1900 roster

Engines built since 1900, in Drury’s order of type and class. Quantities are his, checked against Edwin B. Robertson’s Maine Central Steam Locomotives where a subclass letter on the printed grid is ambiguous. Pre-1900 engines, and the two Portland & Rumford Falls Moguls, are above. Retirement years are class spans, not unit-by-unit scrapping dates.

Type	Class	Numbers	Qty	Builder	Built	Retired	Notes
2-6-0	P	308–315	8	Schenectady	1900	—	About the size of a Boston & Maine B-15
2-6-0	P	316–319	4	Manchester	1902	—
4-6-0	C	106, 107	2	—	—	—	55-in drivers. 104,000 lb. Light freight. Letter C was later reused for the Pacifics
4-6-0	C	108, 109	2	—	—	—	55-in drivers. 115,000 lb
4-6-0	N	279–283	5	Schenectady	1903–1906	—	Passenger. 69-in drivers. 19-in cylinders. 142,000 lb
4-6-0	N	284–289	6	Schenectady	1903–1906	—	Passenger. 73-in drivers. 156,000 lb. Same 19-in cylinders
4-6-0	O	351–363	13	Schenectady	1903, 1905	1949–1953	63-in drivers, 21×26. Stephenson valve gear. About 164,000 lb
4-6-0	O-1	364–372	9	Rhode Island	1906	1949–1953	Walschaerts. About 3,000 lb heavier than 351–363
4-6-0	O-2	373–382	10	Baldwin	1907–1908	1949–1953	Larger boilers. 179,300 lb
4-6-0	O-3	401–412	12	Schenectady	1918, 1920	1949–1953	Big O. Passenger. 67-in drivers, 22×28, 206,500 lb. USRA allowed them because the Pacifics were smaller than a USRA light Pacific. Eight in 1918, four in 1920
4-6-0	O-4	383–390	8	Lima	1923	1949–1953	Only Lima steam on the roster. Baker valve gear. 63-in drivers, 20×28, 182,000 lb
2-8-0	W	501–509	9	Schenectady	1910	by 1954	63-in drivers, 22×28
2-8-0	W-1	510–524	15	Schenectady	1912–1913	by 1954	63-in drivers, 23×28
2-8-0	W-2	525–528	4	Schenectady	1914	by 1954	63-in drivers, 23×28
2-6-6-2	X	1201–1204	4	Schenectady	1910	1929; 1203 in 1931	Ex-Boston & Maine oil-burning Hoosac helpers. To MEC late 1911 and early 1912. Converted to coal. Crawford Notch. Works numbers 48648–48651
2-8-2	S	601–620	20	Schenectady	1914–1918	1953	63-in drivers, 26½×30. 601–603 in 1914. Boosters later on 605, 606, 609, 611, 615, and 616
2-8-2	S-1	621–626	6	Schenectady	1919	1953	USRA light Mikado. 626 later given a booster
2-8-2	S-2	627–632	6	Schenectady	1924	1953	Original design plus a booster. About 60,400 lb tractive effort with the booster cut in
2-10-2	A	651–658	8	Schenectady	1920–1923	1948–1953	Ex-Boston & Maine, acquired mid-1930s to mid-1940s. 651 ex-3000, 652 ex-3008, 653 ex-3017, 655 ex-3020 are the documented renumberings
4-6-2	C	450–457	8	Schenectady	1907–1911	1954	73-in drivers, 22×28. 450 and 451 weighed 210,000 lb. Two in 1907, three in 1909, one in 1910, two in 1911
4-6-2	C-1	458–462	5	Schenectady	1912–1913	1954	Two in 1912, three in 1913
4-6-2	C-2	463–465	3	Schenectady	1914	1954	238,500 lb
4-6-2	C-3	466–470	5	Schenectady	1917, 1924	1954	Boosters. As built, 25-in cylinders and about 260,000 lb. Rebuilt 1933–34 to 24×28 and 195 psi. 470, works 65555, preserved. Last steam run June 13, 1954
4-6-4	D	701, 702	2	Baldwin	1930	1955	73-in drivers, 23×28, 240 psi, 312,590 lb. Tractive effort 41,300 lb plus 12,000 lb booster. Portland–Bangor only. 702 later supplied steam at Portland Terminal

Sources

George H. Drury, Guide to North American Steam Locomotives, revised edition, Maine Central chapter, pp. 205–207, including Portland Terminal. User photographs in Downloads/MEC_Steam.
Edwin B. Robertson, Maine Central Steam Locomotives (Westbrook, Maine, 1977), for subclass letters, builder groups, and the O-3 passenger Ten-Wheelers.
William D. Edson, “Maine Central All-Time Locomotive Roster,” Railroad History 152 (Spring 1985), pp. 55–83. Drury also cites Railway & Locomotive Historical Society Bulletin 55 and 56.
Ron Johnson, Maine Central R.R. Mountain Division (470 Railroad Club), for Mountain Division assignments and Pacific weights.
New England Steam Corporation and the 470 locomotive record: works number 65555, last run June 13, 1954, removed from the Waterville display in 2016.

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