In June 1847, the canal company entered into an agreement to sell the waggonway to the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway. However, this transaction was never completed. Coal traffic along the waggonway peaked in 1851 at 33,621 tons. That year, however, was the first full year of operation of the Silkstone Coal Branch Railway, which quickly took traffic away from the waggonway. By 1856, only 22,726 tons of coal was carried. By 1864, ownership of the waggonway had transferred to the Aire and Calder Navigation and in 1866 the waggonway carried just 3,246 tons of coal and in 1870, no coal was carried at all.
