[f. TRAM sb.2, sense 2 or 4 (more prob. the former) + ROAD.] Orig., in mining districts, a rond having ‘trams’ or beams of wood, lengths of stone, or later, iron plates or ‘rails’ laid in two parallel lines, to form wheel-tracks for the easier transport of minerals in ‘trams’ or wagons; hence, generally, a track for vehicles thus made; = RAILWAY sb. 1; now, in parliamentary language, a special track or narrow railroad for wagons or cars, as distinguished from a tramway laid down for tram-cars on an ordinary road or street. Also attrib.
(The name tram-road has been erroneously stated to be derived from the surname of Mr. Benjamin Outram, an engineer largely engaged in the construction of tram-roads for traffic, in some parts of the country (see quot. 1800). 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. Unfortunately, the legend was recorded as a fact by S. Smiles in his Life of George Stephenson (1857), p. 61, whence it was quoted and repeated in popular publications, and is still widely current, although its absurdity, etymologically and otherwise, was clearly pointed out in 1882 by Professor Skeat in his Dictionary of English Etymology.)
[Cf. 1793. Act 33 Geo. III., c. 96. An Act … for making … Rail Ways and Stone Roads from such Canal to several Iron Works and Mines.
1799. Commons Jrnl., LIV. 613/1. A Bill for the making of Ways or Roads, usually called Railways or Dram Roads. Ibid., 664/1.]
1800. Agreement, 18 Dec., in J. Lloyd, On South Wales Iron Works (1906), 143. The Monmouthshire Canal Company shall … make a good and sufficient tramroad, according to the plans of Benjamin Outram,… Engineer, from the Tredegar Iron Works, to join their Canal near Risca Church.
1804. Act 44 Geo. III., c. 55 (title), An Act for making and maintaining a Railway or Tram-road from the Town of Swansea, into the Parish of Oystermouth in the County of Glamorgan.
1818. (title) Observations on the Proposed Railway or Tram-road from Stockton to the Collieries, by way of Darlington.
1824. T. G. Cumming, Rail & Tram Roads, 17. Such is the decided preference given to tram roads, that with the exception of about five miles … the whole are upon the tram plate principle.
1838. Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl., I. 328/1. Certain Improvements in the Construction of Railroads and Tramroads to facilitate the accent and descent of Hills and inclined Planes.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 982. The corves descend along the tram-roads. Ibid., 994. In the dip-mine a double tram-road is laid.
1843. Penny Cycl., XXV. 118/1. Tram-road, a road prepared for the easy transit of trams or waggons, by the insertion, in its surface, of smooth beams of wood, blocks of stone, or plates of iron, as wheel-tracks.
1846. R. Ritchie, Railways, 12. Several tracks of continuous stone rails, usually termed tram roads, have been constructed.
1852. Wiggins, Embanking, 63. Good tram-road sleepers may be had at much less money.
1880. Disraeli, Endym., lxii. Lancashire with … its tramroads and its railroads.
1881. Young, Ev. Man his own Mechanic, § 1091. The amateur will find his scaffold-boards very handy as a temporary tramroad for his barrow to run over.
1885. Law Times Rep., LI. 583/1. The tram-road upon which the steam motor was being driven.
1901. [see TRAMWAY 1 b].
b. fig.
1859. A. Sedgwick, in Darwin’s Life & Lett. (1887), II. 248. After a start in that tram-road of all solid physical truth.
1859. G. Meredith, R. Feverel, xxiii. The young man got on the tramroad of his passion, and went ahead.
