I came for the C&O historical fiction but kept reading to suggest that, regarding Talltim's query, they used to quarry the "oro blanco" from the salt ponds at Las Salinas de Janubio in Lanzarote. A small operation, with not much to see for the tourist.
But I can think of two historical examples of extensive narrow gauge salt railways -- the Leslie Salt Company (later Cargill) in Newark, California and the Western Salt Company in San Diego, California -- which looked and operated much like peat bog railways. On Lanzarote, there's apparently plenty of clay soil to expand the salination ponds to the required industrial magnitude. Should that have ever occured, the sight of salt being dumped into rakes of side-tip hoppers on portatrack as it's mechanically stripped from the crystallization ponds brings tears to my eyes...