Thanks to that innate governmental desire to report on just about everything, and learning institutions' desire to archive just about everything we have the opportunity to view the significant financial health of railroads. The value and power of the Commission Reports as a research tool cannot be understated.
Railroad Commission Reports provide details of common carrier railroads each year (Annual) or every two years (Biennial).
Within the Reports we have Ownership, Financial, and equipment numbers. Data on consumables such as fuel, lubricants and maintenance costs. Employee data, mileage, freight and passenger haulage, plus related statistics. ROW data, tie replacement, trestle upkeep, insurance, and liability costs are also contained within the pages. The student of a road is well advised to parse these documents.
In this section we will provide links to the Railroad Commission Reports we have located so far that are available on-line. Over time, we hope to access Reports that are in private collections and have them within PacificNG's Archives as well. If you would like to contribute a link please e-mail us: pacificng@gmail.com
Note that the Reports are not limited to individual roads but rather are Statewide summaries. We have them organized by State and Year.
Enjoy!
California.
1876 Biennial Report of the Board of Railroad Commissioners.
1877 - 1878 Biennial Report of the Commissioner of Transportation.
1880-1881-1882 Biennial Report of the Board of Railroad Commissioners.
1883 Biennial Report of the Board of Railroad Commissioners.
1884 Annual Report of the Board of Railroad Commissioners.
1885 Annual Report of the Board of Railroad Commissioners.
1886 Biennial Report of the Board of Railroad Commissioners.
1888 Biennial Report of the Board of Railroad Commissioners.
1889 Biennial Report of the Board of Railroad Commissioners.
1891 Annual Report of the Board of Railroad Commissioners.
1892 Biennial Report of the Board of Railroad Commissioners.
1893 - 1894 Biennial Report of the Board of Railroad Commissioners.
1895 - 1896 Biennial Report of the Board of Railroad Commissioners.
1900 Biennial Report of the Board of Railroad Commissioners.
1903 Biennial Report of the Board of Railroad Commissioners.
1911 - 1912 Biennial Report of the Board of Railroad Commissioners.
1915 - 1916 Biennial Report of the Board of Railroad Commissioners.
1917 - 1918 Biennial Report of the Board of Railroad Commissioners.
1918 - 1919 Biennial Report of the Board of Railroad Commissioners.
1921 - 1922 Biennial Report of the Board of Railroad Commissioners.
Nevada
1908-1909 2nd Annual Report of the Railroad and Public Service Commission
1909-1910 3rd Annual Report of the Railroad and Public Service Commission
1911 4th Annual Report of the Railroad and Public Service Commission
1912 5th Biennial Report of the Railroad and Public Service Commission
1913 6th Annual Report of the Railroad and Public Service Commission
1915-1916 Biennial Report of the Railroad and Public Service Commission
1917-1918 Biennial Report of the Railroad and Public Service Commission
Oregon.
1891 - 1892 Biennial Report of the Board of Railroad Commissioners.