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.

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.

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.

[6] 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.

The boilers required coal, imported to the coastal town of Narragansett Pier four miles (6.4 km) southeast by ships and then loaded on wagons and brought to the mills.

[9] 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.

[7] 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.

[13][7] 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.

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.

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.

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".

[25] 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.

A special train carrying newspapers from New York City made the fastest ever traversal of the line by reaching the Pier 12 minutes after leaving Kingston.

Steamboat boosters pointed to the railroad's high rates between Kingston and Narragansett Pier (50 cents, equivalent to $18 in 2023) and surcharges on coal shipments.

[28][34] The Hazard family found a buyer in the New Haven, which under the control of J. P. Morgan was fearful of the Southern New England Railway and its plans to build a competing rail line in the area.

[41] The Rhode Island Company was having issues turning a profit (in no small part due to excessive acquisitions via lease such as the Narragansett Pier Railroad) and in danger of entering bankruptcy.

[41] The Narragansett Pier Railroad's new owners unintentionally neglected many of the required maintenance of way tasks needed to keep the line in a state of good repair.

[41] During USRA control, passenger service was gradually cut from eleven daily trips to six, while the railroad's three steam locomotives were overworked to the point they developed damage to their boilers and could no longer operate at full power.

As part of the resolution of the Rhode Island Company's assets, the Narragansett Pier lease was cancelled in 1920; the USRA returned operations to the Hazard family on March 1, 1920.

[47] With the end of trolley service, the New Haven agreed to run a dedicated freight car between Providence and Kingston daily for traffic along the Narragansett Pier Railroad route.

[51] Subsequently, the towns of Narragansett and South Kingstown agreed to provide a combined total of $15,000 of aid for the railroad in May 1921, enough to cover the company's deficit from the previous year.

The railroad acquired a Mack-Brill railbus in 1921 for use along its main line during non-peak times when passenger demand was insufficient for a locomotive-hauled train to be profitably operated.

[53] Placed into service on June 9, 1921, the railbus proved both reliable and highly economical, with a cost per train-mile less than one quarter that of a steam locomotive with two passenger cars.

[57]Company management was not ignorant of the role of automobiles and buses in the loss of passenger business, and responded by launching their own bus service in 1925, connecting Narragansett Pier and Providence.

In response, the Hazard family incorporated the South County Transportation Company as a wholly owned subsidiary, keeping the buses (and the highway freight business, which was somewhat more successful) one step removed from the railroad.

[68] To cut costs, all of the company's steam locomotives were removed from service at this time and the remaining passenger cars sold for scrap, since the railbuses made them largely redundant.

[74] As no further objections were received, the state of Rhode Island declined to intervene and the Interstate Commerce Commission gave the railroad permission to abandon the segment.

[75] The largest single customer was a fish-processing facility located in South Kingstown which imported salt and exported liquefied fish in tank cars for use in animal feed.

He sought a buyer for $100,000 (equivalent to $420,000 in 2023), the price he had paid to buy the line, and would otherwise sell the company's real estate for development and scrap its remaining equipment.

The entire remaining line was abandoned in 1981, though several pieces of its equipment were saved, including a caboose transferred to the Valley Railroad in Connecticut, and a diesel locomotive that ended up in Micaville, North Carolina.