I found a reference to this railroad in northcarolina.com. According to the site, this line built west from Mt Airy to Ore Knob to service a copper mine. It was listed as merged into the Cape Fear & Yadkin Valley RR in the 1870s. the stations were listed as follows:
Towns on Route:
Mount Airy
Caddells Creek (1877) > White Plains (1877)
Dobson
Judesville > Kapps Mill (1878)
Good Spring (1878)
Cherry Lane
Glade Creek
Sparta (1879)
Laurel Springs
Ore Knob (1874) > Transon (1937)
I have scoured old and new USGS topographic maps for any trace of the railroad grade but can find none. Tracing the route listed, the line would have run into a severe climb up the Blue Ridge escarpment between Good SPring and Cherry Lane with a climb of around 1500 feet. This has me wondering if the railroad was ever built, and if it was, how long it ran before being abandoned. It seems like a lot of railroad to build through inhospitable territory just to service one marginally profitable mine, and there has to be a fascinating story behind this company.
Does anybody know more about this line?