The Lee Moor Tramway was a privately-owned mineral railway that was built to carry china clay and other produce from the southern slopes of Dartmoor to the quays at Plymouth. It was inspired by the Plymouth & Dartmoor Railway, whose track it used for the lower portion of its journey. Like the Plymouth & Dartmoor, it was built to what became known as the "Dartmoor gauge" of 4 feet 6 inches.

The first section, from Crabtree (at Laira) to King's Tor (below Princetown), was opened on 26 September 1823. The extension to Sutton Pool was opened towards the end on 1825, and the remainder of the line into Princetown was in use the following year. In 1829 a branch was opened to connect with the Cann Quarry Canal, and this was extended to both the quarry itself and Plympton five years later.

A new line from Marsh Mills to Lee Moor was opened in 1856, in part to replace the old Plympton branch of the Plymouth & Dartmoor Railway. Two inclines were worked by stationary engines. The lower one, at Cann Wood, was worked by the descending wagons hauling up the ones travelling in the opposite direction, while the upper incline, at Torreycombe, was provided with water tanks that could be used to counterbalance heavy wagons being taken up the slope. The tramway crossed the Tavistock line on a level crossing near Marsh Mills and trains then continued to Plymouth along the old Cann Quarry line and original Plymouth & Dartmoor track. This entailed another level crossing of the South Devon, later Great Western, main line between the Embankment Road and Laira engine sheds.

Lines ran from Lee Moor to both Wotter and Cholwich Town but these closed in 1900 and 1910 respectively. In the 1940s road transport took over most of the traffic and a pipeline was laid from Lee Moor to Marsh Mills in 1947 to carry china clay in slurry form, thus depriving the tramway of most of its purpose. A very limited traffic was carried until 1961 to maintain the tramway's rights of way with wagons crossing the main line hauled by horses.

The cast iron bowstring girder bridge over the river Plym was built in 1823 with two spans resting on abutments and a stone pier, and with a wooden deck. The rails remain in place and the route of the tramroad up to the moor can still be traced.