The Cromford and High Peak Railway was a railway built in the 1830s and operated by the London and North Western Railway to carry minerals and goods between the Cromford Canal at Cromford Wharf and the Peak Forest Canal at Whaley Bridge. Originally a canal was proposed for the route, but the number and steepness of the hills made this impractical. The railway was powered by horses on the flat sections and stationary steam engines on the nine inclined planes, and it took around two days to complete the 33 mile journey.

In 1833 steam locomotives were introduced on all but the very steepest of sections, but horses were still used for another 30 years. A passenger service was operated on the line between 1874 and 1877 with one through train in each direction per day.

Traffic - mainly from local quarries - was slowly decreasing during the Beeching era, the first section of the line being closed in 1963. This was the rope worked 1 in 8 Middleton Incline. The rest of the line was fully closed in spring 1967, including the 1 in 8 Sheep Pasture Incline and the Hopton Incline, which, with a short stretch at 1 in 14, was the steepest locomotive hauled stretch of railway in the UK.

In 1971 the Peak Park Planning Board and Derbyshire County Council bought the track bed and turned it into the High Peak Trail - popular with walkers, cyclists and horse riders. The Middleton Incline Engine House has also been preserved, and the ancient engine once used to haul loaded wagons up is often demonstrated. Another attraction along the route is the Steeple Grange Light Railway, a narrow gauge railway running along the track bed of a branch line off the C&HPR.