The Bolton and Leigh Railway opened for goods traffic in 1828, followed by passenger services in 1831. The railway was built as a single track line and the route included two inclines which were worked using ropes hauled by stationary engines, locomotive haulage being used on the flatter sections of the line. One of these inclines was situated at Daubhill with the line climbing up out of Bolton. This incline was operated by a stationary steam engine which hauled the trains up the incline, in the downhill direction trains worked by gravity. The station at Daubhill opened on 11 June 1831. The station site was not marked on contemporary maps, however the approximate site can be deduced:
A traveller in 1846 wrote to Herepath's Railway Journal with several complaints about the railway which had recently been taken over by the LNWR, one complaint read "passengers going to the Daubhill station, are compelled to go up a flight of some forty steps, alongside of, and over the top of a high-pressure boiler, which has been in use during the last 14 or 16 years." The engine house is clearly marked on the OS six-inch map surveyed between 1844 and 1846.
Shaw reports that the first Daubhill station was situated alongside Tootal's "Sunnyside Mills" and that Tootal had in their offices a watercolour of their Mills, painted in 1864 showing the original Daubhill station and a passenger train proceeding up the line.
Improvements in locomotive design meant the inclines became redundant, to avoid the incline, and allow steam locomotives to haul trains for the entire journey, the LNWR, successor to the B&LR, built a deviation over easier gradients. This required the resiting of the 1831 Daubhill station. The station closed on 2 February 1885 and was replaced by a new Rumworth and Daubhill only a short distance away on the same day. The original Daubhill line was not simply closed, but sections at both ends were retained for many years, with only a short central section being closed and lifted immediately. The northern end was retained to serve the Crown Brewery. The southern end of the old line survived to serve Sunnyside Mills and Daubhill Coal yard until the mid-1960s.
