Re: Porter 0-4-0s

The neat thing about Porters is that even at an early date (1870's), Porter maintained templates and patterns and did a lot of business in mail-order parts. It wasn't trying to compete with the other locomotive builders so much as it was competing against animal power. A great many of its customers did not have extensive machine shops and often could not fabricate their own parts. This runs contrary to the more stereotypical case with steam locomotives where owners commonly had to machine their own components. Porter built relatively few custom models and its business plan was not that dissimilar in concept from that of modern automobile companies.

Porter products are usually good examples of the phrase, "Form follows function." Components will usually be located with ease of maintenance or ease of operation in mind with only secondary regard for aesthetics. That's where those inclined cylinders come from on the smaller models. It provides more ground clearance. They're designed to be operated by what amounted to backyard operations and the survivors still give good service in such conditions to this day.