The Kings Mountain Railroad Company was chartered in 1848 and the line was completed in 1852.
It ran 22 miles (35 km) from Yorkville to Chester Court House and cost 000, most of which was privately financed.
The railroad was destroyed by the Union Army during the Civil War and was not rebuilt afterward.
It lay abandoned for several years, until its line was acquired by the Chester and Lenoir Narrow Gauge Railroad in 1873.
[3] The Chester and Lenoir eventually operated under the umbrella of the Richmond and Danville Railroad, and later became part of the Southern Railway.