It ran via Hickleton and Thurnscoe to Wath where it made an east facing junction with the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway and a spur to reach Manvers Main Colliery.

[1] The line had problems with subsidence, as well as flooding at the point it passed under the Midland railway.

The line was opened for goods on 31 March 1902 and for passengers on 28 August the same year with intermediate stations at Moorhouse and South Elmsall and Hickleton and Thurnscoe.

Passenger traffic, which ran to Kirk Smeaton on the H&B, ended on 6 April 1929, goods traffic between Wath and Hickleton ended on 2 October 1933, between Hickleton and Moorhouse on 31 May 1954 and on the remainder of the line on 1 October 1963.

Certain lines around the southern terminus at Wath remained for use by the National Coal Board.