One of the first independent companies based in Portland to construct and outfit streetcars. It was founded by M. E. Heacock, owner of the Vulcan Manufacturing Company, after a car he had built for the Metropolitan Railway Company garnered much praise. Their plant was located in the Mechanics’ Pavilion, adjacent to the small city car barn and offices of the Metropolitan.
The first car to run between Portland and Oregon City on the East Side Railway in February 1893 – named “Helen” – was a product of this company. They also built the ill-fated “Inez,” which was later involved in one of the deadliest streetcar accidents ever in Portland when it plunged off an open draw on the Madison bridge into the Willamette River.
By 1893, the company was producing cars for most of the streetcar companies then operating in Portland – the City & Suburban, the East Side Railway, and the Portland Consolidated Street Railway – and also to the Point Defiance, Tacoma & Edison Railway in Washington. They also built track junctions for the City & Suburban under the direction of C. F. Swigert.
The last mention of the company I have found in newspapers dates from January 1899, though by this time their main concern seems to be the manufacture of tools for miners and loggers.