Rhode Island Viability

I am sitting in my office thinking about potential build orders for the USA and I am wondering about the possibility of using Rhode Island as the Age II federal state age-up.

Using Chinese immigrants as the first card you can quickly establish two or more TP's and gain dominance on a trade route. Age up as usual using Rhode Island and then send Corliss Steam Engine as your second or third card which allows you to get railroad upgrade for free on the TP. Now you have a really strong trickle of resources or XP early in the game which can be used for primarily an extended Age II push or perhaps a Semi-FF.

Only issue I guess is what you are sacrificing out of the standard build orders like the capitol building and early barracks. I don't know at what point you would send the French immigrant card (maybe in the Age II transition?) and you would need a pretty aggressive play to defend your trade posts from the more rush centric civs since this will take some time to get going. Any thoughts?