From Cheraw to Hamlet, the line was built by the Palmetto Railroad, which was completed in 1887.[5]
The Florida Central and Peninsular Railroad, the Chesterfield and Kershaw Railroad, and the Palmetto Railroad all became part of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad in 1900. The unified line became a segment of the Seaboard main line. The Seaboard Air Line designated this segment of the main line as the Hamlet Subdivision, which it is still known as today.[6] Seaboard would eventually become CSX by the 1980s.