When the Portland Shops started building new motors from scratch, the Port of Montréal asked if they could produce some new units to supplement/replace their increasingly elderly collection of English Electric motors. Management didn’t see any reason not to, so a little subsidiary was formed to market steeplecab switchers to the remaining DC electrifications in North America.

The resulting unit was the Portland SW; a 100 ton 3000 HP steeplecab set on a pair of class E trucks. The PdM’s units were delivered in March of ‘67, then the New York Central ordered three of them, which were delivered in December (to become Penn Central 4740-4743 in 1968), but, alas, once you got out of the Parsons Vale sphere of influence North American railroads were busy getting out of the traction business.

Ten SWs were built; 4 for the PdM, 3 for the NYC, and 3 for INCO. The PdM units are still in operation, but the INCO & NYC units were retired and scrapped in early 2000s.

These switchers are still cataloged, but now by ILW in Canada.