The Narragansett Pier Railroad was a railroad in southern Rhode Island, running from West Kingston to Narragansett Pier. It was built by the Hazard family of Rhode Island to connect their textile mills in Peace Dale to the New York, Providence and Boston Railroad at Kingston Station, as well as to ocean-going steamboats at Narragansett Pier. Upon opening in 1876, the railroad also proved crucial in the growth of Narragansett Pier into a major resort. Initially operated at a loss absorbed by the Hazards, by the 1890s the railroad became consistently profitable and handled a brisk passenger business along with freight and mail shipments. The Hazards also operated a connecting steamboat service to Newport.
The railroad's fortunes peaked around 1900; the burning of the Narragansett Pier Casino that year was a blow the resort town never fully recovered from. With competition from the newly-opened electric Sea View Railroad and automobiles alike, passenger numbers declined sharply and the Hazard family sought to exit the railroad business. The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad took control from the Hazards via a lease in 1911 through its streetcar subsidiary the Rhode Island Company, and the line was subsequently nationalized by the United States Railroad Administration (USRA) between 1917 and 1920. The Rhode Island Company collapsed in 1919, so the USRA returned the railroad to the Hazard family the following year.
With the Hazards back in control, the railroad adopted a number of reforms to stay competitive, including both railbus and road bus services along with a trucking business. After a financial crisis and temporary receivership in 1936, the railroad divested from non-rail operations. Steam locomotives were retired in 1937 in favor of more economical gasoline power. The Hazards exited the railroad business for good by selling to the family trust of Textron founder Royal Little in 1946. Passenger service was abolished in 1952, after which a local lumber yard agreed to purchase the railroad to ensure its continued operation as a freight-only Class III railroad, though the line was cut back from Narragansett Pier to Wakefield. A succession of later owners attempted to both grow freight business and restore passenger operations with mixed success into the 1970s. Loss of freight business forced the railroad to shut down for good in 1981.
Most of the right-of-way has been converted to the William C. O'Neill Bike Path. Several railroad structures have been preserved, along with a steam locomotive that was restored to operating status in 2015 by the Everett Railroad.
Formation and construction
Background and formation
The Narragansett Pier Railroad was the brainchild of Rowland G. Hazard, an industrialist and member of the prominent Hazard family of Rhode Island. In 1819, Rowland G. Hazard and his brother Isaac Peace Hazard took control of the operations of a number of textile mills in Peace Dale, Rhode Island, founded by their father Rowland Hazard in 1802. The brothers at first focused on relatively inexpensive wool and cotton products primarily marketed towards the Southern United States. After the mill burned down in 1844, the brothers established a new mill in 1847 which produced broadcloths and shawls; they formed the Peace Dale Manufacturing Company the following year. An additional shawl mill was completed in 1859, followed by a major expansion in 1872 which added a large mill dedicated to woolen products. The switch in focus towards wool products was motivated in part by a downturn in sales to the southern states, attributed to Rowland G. Hazard's strong abolitionist sympathies. Hazard was an active member of the antislavery Free Soil Party and its successor the Republican Party, and was instrumental in the freeing of a number of wrongly imprisoned free Black men during a visit to New Orleans in 1845.
While the original mill had used water power from the Saugatucket River, as the mill complex expanded steam power was introduced as well. The boilers required coal, imported to the coastal town of Narragansett Pier southeast by ships and then loaded on wagons and brought to the mills. Transloading coal into wagons and moving them overland was slow and costly. The lack of an efficient means of transport overland also hampered the mills' ability to import and export materials and finished wool products.
Narragansett Pier's potential as a coastal resort had been known to businessmen since the construction of its first hotel in 1856, but significant growth was held back by poor transportation links. The nearest rail line to the Pier was the New York, Providence and Boston Railroad (commonly known as the Stonington Line) which opened in 1837 with a station at West Kingston. From there, travelers had to take a bumpy stagecoach trip to the Pier. The only alternative was taking a ship across Narragansett Bay from Newport, a route infamous for its rough seas. Hazard had previously been a major investor in the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad and was therefore familiar with the benefits of rail transport. He recognized that both the mills and Narragansett Pier would greatly benefit from a railroad, and therefore set about organizing one with industrialist and politician William Sprague IV, receiving legislative approval for a charter in 1868.
Construction While a survey was completed for the proposed railroad promptly after Hazard and Sprague obtained their charter, neither party had ever built a railroad before, and funding from other investors was not forthcoming. For several years, the organizers attempted to secure more funding with little success. Sprague's eponymous Sprague Company was devastated by the Panic of 1873, and with the financial downturn came even more difficulty in attracting investors. By the time the economy began to recover, the Hazards could count on only a handful of small industries in Wakefield and several hotels in Narragansett Pier as partners in their railroad venture. With the original charter set to expire in 1875 and no progress in construction made, Rowland G. Hazard reorganized the company that year at a meeting in Peace Dale; his son John N. Hazard was appointed company president. The primary issue to be settled was the route of the railroad, with two routes available that either bypassed or entered downtown Kingston. Kingston native Elisha R. Potter provided an additional $15,000 () in funding to support the more expensive downtown Kingston routing, but when the stockholders held a subsequent meeting on January 26, 1876, to decide on a route, the option bypassing Kingston was the clear victor. The Stonington Line also agreed to subscribe $15,000 towards the line's construction in hopes that the opening of the new railroad would provide it with more business, making it the only major shareholder besides the Hazards. Funding from stock subscriptions totaled approximately $100,000 ( by this point, but expenses reached more than $186,000, requiring the company to obtain $96,000 () in bonds to cover the difference. Construction of the railroad, subcontracted to Reynolds Dowling, was launched in February 1876.
After inquiries to several builders, a locomotive was ordered from the Mason Machine Works for $8,000 () in early May and arrived the next month. Once it arrived, Rowland G. Hazard's demands for additional features on the locomotive and tender ("We do not find flag stands on the engine", Hazard complained) infuriated owner William Mason. Mason personally wrote an exasperated reply to Hazard, stating "I have never furnished Flag Staves. They are expensive and boyish.... You paid $800 less for an engine than I have ever sold before. You should not expect too much in the way of extra furnishing". For rolling stock, a passenger car and baggage car were ordered from the Osgood Bradley Car Company (lettered A and B respectively) in mid-May, along with six side dump cars to carry coal shipments and a handcar for maintenance of way use. The Hazards had left many details out of their order, requiring Osgood Bradley to write them for particulars on everything from lettering to windows and lighting. Osgood Bradley delivered the two passenger cars on June 29 only for the railroad to discover their air brake hoses were incompatible with the ones on the locomotive, requiring an adaptor to be ordered.
The Hazards' ignorance of all the necessities for running a railroad day-to-day was the culprit for a wide variety of rushed orders for everything from spare sections of rail to baggage carts for use at stations (ordered within 48 hours of opening day); the line's railroad cars weren't ordered until halfway through May despite Hazard hoping to open the line on July 1. The company ran its first train on July 17, 1876. As built, the railroad began at a connection with the Stonington Line at Kingston station, where trains from both railroads called. The railroad diverged southeast up a hill, then proceeded east to Gould's Crossing, the first station. At Peace Dale, a trestle was built to carry the railroad on a southward curve over Kingston Avenue and two streams, beyond which the Peace Dale station was located along with a freight house and a small rail yard. The next station was at Wakefield, just after a bridge over the Saugatuck River. Beyond Wakefield, the railroad proceeded east, and after a pair of curves to the south and then the east, the final stop was at Narragansett Pier, where the original station was located by the water on Ocean Drive. The company's original engine house and a freight station were also located here, plus a short spur line to the South Pier itself. The completed line covered a distance of approximately .
Operation by the Hazard family
Initially, four round trips were run daily for passengers, but growing patronage grew this to six and then nine (though service was reduced to five round trips in the winter off-season). Passenger trains connected with the Stonington Line at Kingston, and single tickets were available for travel on both railroads. Management attempted to reach similar agreements with other railroads in the region but found no takers. Passenger numbers were strong, with the railroad's sole passenger car filled to the brim on opening day. The freight business was secondary to passengers in importance, but significant amounts of coal were hauled from ships docking at Narragansett Pier to both the Peace Dale mills and local homes and businesses. Other traffic sources included wood and lumber, various agricultural products, and general freight; ice was imported in trains for local use as a coolant during the summers. Mail service on behalf of the United States Postal Service was started in 1878.
Many improvements quickly became necessary – passengers could find no benches at the railroad's stations until they were ordered late in the first month of operations, and a flatcar was quickly found indispensable and ordered from Osgood Bradley the following month. Even cords for the bells on the passenger cars needed replacement, and the Hazards sent a purchase order to Osgood Bradley asking for "the most desirable kind of rope". Western Union installed a telegraph line along the railroad in 1879.
By September, the Boston Evening Transcript reported the opening of the railroad to Narragansett Pier "has had a marked effect on this very popular seaside resort", including the demise of the stagecoach previously used by visitors from points west or south. The introduction of fast transportation to the resort town prompted a boom in construction of hotels and casinos. Travelers from Providence could reach Narragansett Pier in approximately 80 minutes' time.