The railroad had over 95 miles of track, 11 engines, 10 cars, and the ability to transport freight materials in excess of 16,000 to 1.7 million tons or more.

Commodities carried by the railroad are hot carbon dioxide (bottled), coal, wood products, stone, grain, agricultural chemicals, and processed food.

In November 1985, Horry County, South Carolina purchased the Seaboard System Railroad line from Conway to Myrtle Beach.

The county turned down Carolina Southern's three bids, and by 1998, the city of Myrtle Beach showed interest.

[2][3] In 1987, the South Carolina Department of Transportation declared the section east of the Pine Island Bridge over the Intracoastal Waterway to be unsafe.

The state spent $4.2 million to restore the 50-year-old bridge, which reopened in summer 1997, pending implementation of Amtrak High Speed Rail service connecting at Florence, S.C.

The first train crossed the bridge June 22, 2001, but Carolina Southern, still leasing from the county, had to spend $900,000 to bring the section east of the waterway up to the standards needed for regular service.

Carolina Southern Railroad was under a voluntary shutdown due to several bridges along the rail line requiring maintenance.

The shutdown caused Carolina Southern to lay off nearly if not all of its employees, due to failing Federal Railroad Administration bridge inspections.

[8] However, the TIGER grant application failed, leaving Horry County and Carolina Southern seeking other funding methods to upgrade their tracks.

[9] In February 2012, Carolina Southern announced that they would again seek funding through a different TIGER grant level to get the most important problems fixed.

[7][11][12] On August 23, 2012, MyHorryNews reported that First Federal Bank was suing the owners of Carolina Southern Railroad because of unpaid debt of over $1 million.

Wendel told the committee that the service is essential to the local area and went on to say that a lot of land along the line could be used by manufacturers if the railroad were up and running.

County records showed that, while Ken Pippin was found in default on $400,000 in debt secured by a condominium, he owned three other condos worth $879,000.

The state did have its own appraisal done as it was considering purchasing Carolina Southern and making it a part of the state-owned Palmetto Railways.

Pippin wanted to maintain ownership of seven miles of track around Mullins that freight into and out of the rest of the line would need toll travel to get to the national rail system.

[33] On September 17, 2014, it was announced that most of the details on a possible purchase had been worked out; Wendel said the sale was to be complete by year end.

"[44] In a complaint filed March 6, 2015, Corman asked that Ken Pippin be required to sell Carolina Southern.