In the 1820s a number of proposals for a railway between Manchester and Bolton were made, some well advanced enough to be submitted to Parliament.

The plan included the use of an inclined plane at Clifton to allow the railway to access the higher ground from thereon.

Another scheme was to connect with the planned Liverpool and Manchester Railway near Eccles, and would reach Bolton via Moorside and Farnworth.

Alexander Nimmo was employed to assess the proposal, and reported that it was possible "so far as he expressed himself capable of judging from his present cursory view of the canal".

Two branch lines were also authorised, one from Clifton Aqueduct through to Great Lever, and the other from Giants Seat through to Radcliffe and Bury.

[6] Due mainly to the objections of local mine owners who would have lost access to the canal and therefore their supply route, and who also would not have had branch railways built for them, the company agreed to an amending bill which would keep the canal and allow the new railway to be constructed alongside it.

The company attempted to alter the route of the Bury branch, and also to extend it to Rawtenstall, but they did not receive Parliamentary approval for this.

[10] In July 1834 the committee of management applied to Parliament for "an act to amend the line of the railway between Manchester and Bolton".

[10] Work proceeded so slowly that further clauses were added to the proposed act, including a continuation of the railway from Bolton, to Liverpool.

Advertisements in the Bolton Chronicle appealed to Quarrymen for quantities of stone blocks to support the rails, and for excavators to construct parts of a proposed addition to the embankment from Agecroft towards Clifton Hall.

A double-bore tunnel 295 yards (270 m) long was built between 1835 and 1838, driven from both sides, with a large vertical shaft in the centre.

Passing through Pendleton, Clifton Junction, Dixon Fold, Stoneclough and Farnworth the line ended at Bolton railway station.

From Salford, the line was extended 1,290 yards (1,180 m)[24] via several bridges and across Chapel Street, to Victoria Station in 1844.

[26] Significant earthworks were required along the route, and the 295-yard (270 m) tunnel at Farnworth was constructed in favour of a cutting.

With only 12 inches (30 cm) of space between some vehicles and the bridge supports, a report by the Inspector of Railways on 11 December 1846 concluded that they were dangerous.

[34] The locomotive works of the Manchester and Bolton Railway (M&BR) was at Salford, on the south side of the line within a roughly triangular area bounded by the railway, the Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal, and East Ordsall Lane (grid reference SJ826982).

Locomotive maintenance was transferred to the Miles Platting works of the LYR, and the Salford buildings were demolished before 1865.

He resigned in early February 1845 to take up a similar position with the M&LR at their Miles Platting works, which was then under construction.

The trains originally ran on the right hand set of rails, an unusual practice in England, however the railway later changed to left-hand running with the connection of the MB&RRC at Clifton.