The branch followed the main cross-country line between Manchester and Huddersfield as far as Delph Junction, set above the village of Uppermill.
The line terminated at Delph, where a private siding served Messrs Mallalieu's Bailey Mill.
However, Gordon Suggitt states in his book, Lost Railways of Merseyside & Greater Manchester, that it has never been proven that there was a donkey or horse-drawn service on the line.
As of 2012[update], old pieces of track, that had not been moved since the closure almost 50 years before, remained outside Bailey Mill at the old Delph terminus.
Minor work was carried out in the 1980s, as part of a planned maintenance programme, which in-filled the centre air vent to avoid any subsidence.