Dictionary

tramroad en · NOUN

Etymology

From tram + road.

Meanings

1. A road designed for use by trams or wagons.
   • About two hundred and fifty years ago, some genius, as unknown as the inventor of the lathe, laid the first wooden tramroad, to enable a horse to draw forty-two cwt. instead of seventeen. 1863, Charles Reade, Hard Cash:
   • It is not improbable that, in some locality where tram-roads were a novelty, their name may have been associated in folk-etymology or by pre-scientific etymologers with that of the engineer. 1926, James A.H. Murray, A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles, volume X, part I, page 248, column 1:
   • Immediately to the west of Coleorton, an important system of tramroads was built in connection with the Ashby-de-la-Zouch Canal. 1939 July, Charles E. Lee, “Swannington: One-Time Railway Centre”, in Railway Magazine, page 4:
   • The company arranged for access to a Blackpool terminus […] over a street tramway to be constructed by, and leased for 21 years from, the Corporation. The distance between termini was about eight miles, of which 6 miles 22 ch. was to be tramroad on private right-of-way. 1955 September, Donald F. Phillips, “From Blackpool to Fleetwood by Tramroad”, in Railway Magazine, page 641:

Forms

Relateds

plateway