This section was constructed before 1870 as part of an extension of the Cheraw and Darlington Railroad. This construction was possibly part of the Cheraw and Salisbury and Cheraw & Coal Fields Railroads. The C&D was pulled into the ACL of SC in 1897, and then became part of the ACL in 1900.
The line gained new importance by 1910 when the Winston-Salem Southbound Railway was built as a joint venture between the ACL and the Norfolk and Western between Winston-Salem and Wadesboro. This line formed a route by which coal and other products from central North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia made their way down to Charleston via Cheraw, Darlington, Florence and then on the old Northeastern Railroad to Charleston. With the merger of ACL and SAL in 1967, this line became unnecessary as tonnage from the W-SS could access the former SAL main at Wadesboro and then make its way to Charleston by other routes. SCL abandoned this section in the mid-1970s.
Towns on the abandoned line from Cheraw going north are Laney, McFarlane, Morven and to W-S Junction just east of Wadesboro.