# Talk:Newport and Wickford Railroad and Steamboat Company

From the Interstate Commerce Commission's Fourteenth Annual Report of the Statistics of Railways in the United States for the year ending June 30, 1901: the Newport and Wickford Railroad Company owned 3.4 miles of railroad line. This can be found on page 142, and it also says the same railroad operates 3.4 miles of railroad line, which implies no trackage rights. It also says there was no change from the previous year. Poor's 1894 Manual of Railroads, on page 26, says 3.4 miles for the year ended June 30, 1893. TwoScars (talk) 16:03, 16 May 2024 (UTC)

As someone who worked in the railroad industry for over 30 years, I can say with confidence that both of these sources are very good. The Interstate Commerce Commission was the economic regulator of the railroad industry. Railroads were required to report their road and track milage to the ICC in addition to financial data. Eventually, those requirements were limited to only Class I railroads—but that was not the case for the first 100 years. The second source, Poor's Manual of the Railroads of the United States, is a predecessor of Standard & Poor's. S&P is one of the biggest names in statistical data used by investors. TwoScars (talk) 15:41, 31 May 2024 (UTC)