Talk:Railroads in New England

A fact from Railroads in New England appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 25 October 2021 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that the first railroad in New England was powered by horses?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2021/October. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Railroads in New England.

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Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Theleekycauldron (talk) 16:37, 17 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

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Article history

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... that in 1850, railroads in New England made up more than half of all railroad mileage in the U.S.? Source: Atlas of North American Railroads, by Bill Yenne, p. 32 "As late as 1850, over half of the total track mileage in the United States was north and east of New York City."
- ALT1: ... that the first three steam railroads in New England all had Boston in their names? Source: The Rail Lines of Southern New England, by Ronald Dale Karr, p. 15 "The first three New England railroads, a trio of lines radiating from Boston, were completed in 1835. Each of these, the Boston & Lowell, the Boston and Worcester, and the Boston & Providence, was initially intended only to provide Boston with direct service to three important interior cities."
- ALT2: ... that the first railroad in New England was built to haul granite for the building of the Bunker Hill Monument? Source: "Building the Bunker Hill Monument", by the National Park Service. "The first commercial, horse-drawn railway took the granite blocks from the quarry (left) to the Neponset River three miles away." [1]
- ALT3: ... that railroads in New England formed the first "comprehensive rail network" in North America? Source: Atlas of North American Railroads, by Bill Yenne, p. 32 "New England's railroads have always played an important role in U.S. history, and indeed the region was the earliest on the continent to have a comprehensive rail network."
- ALT4: ... that the first railroad in New England was powered by horses? Source: "Building the Bunker Hill Monument", by the National Park Service. "The first commercial, horse-drawn railway took the granite blocks from the quarry (left) to the Neponset River three miles away." [2]

Comment: This is my second DYK nom, so no QPQ is necessary.

Created/expanded by Trainsandotherthings (talk). Self-nominated at 18:58, 5 October 2021 (UTC).[reply]

Drive-by comment: I like what we came up with on WP:DISCORD:
- ALT4: ... that the first railroad in New England was powered by horses?

I haven't heard of horse-pulled trains before, and it's intriguing enough it'd get me to click. My second choice would be ALT0, which I'd rephrase like this:

ALT0a: ... that in 1850, railroads in New England made up more than half of all railroad mileage in the U.S.?

Cheers, {{u|Sdkb}} ^talk 21:08, 5 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for reminding me, I forgot about the horse one. I've added it as ALT4, ~~and your suggested rewording of ALT0 as ALT5.~~ and replaced the original ALT0 with your suggested version. The reviewer will have many options to choose from! Trainsandotherthings (talk) 21:48, 5 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

General: Article is new enough and long enough
New enough: Long enough:

Policy: Article is sourced, neutral, and free of copyright problems
Adequate sourcing: Neutral: Free of copyright violations, plagiarism, and close paraphrasing:

Hook eligibility:

Cited:
Interesting:
Other problems: - I would prefer ALT0A or ALT2. ALT1 does mention three railroads in the article, but it's not that interesting to me. I'm not sure about ALT3/ALT4 as that does not seem particularly rare, but since I'm in NY, it may just be something common in this part of the US.

QPQ: None required.

Overall: @Trainsandotherthings: Nice work. There is just one issue to fix.

- The "Heritage railroads" and "track gauge" sections are completely unsourced, and I see a few paragraphs without inline citations too. Per WP:DYKSG#D2, a rule of thumb is at least one per paragraph. However, I figure such sources aren't too hard to find. Epicgenius (talk) 00:19, 14 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@Epicgenius: I knew there were a few citations missing somewhere! The paragraphs missing citations have all been addressed now I think. Let me know if I missed any. Trainsandotherthings (talk) 01:24, 14 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I think you got them all. There are some sentences with missing cites but they are relatively minor, and citations for each sentence (rather than for each paragraph) are outside the purview of DYK. I have approved this nomination now. Epicgenius (talk) 01:30, 14 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Promoter's comment: I think ALT4 is the most interesting—it does conjure the image (for those who haven't seen it) of a horse trying to pull a whole freight train. I think the other hooks, while good, aren't quite as vivid in that way. theleekycauldron (talk • contribs) (they/them) 16:37, 17 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

ALT4 to T:DYK/P5