tram-platen.
One of the flat or flanged iron plates used in forming early tramways (in mines or above ground), instead of the wooden or stone ‘trams’ previously used.
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society > travel > means of travel > route or way > way, path, or track > road laid with parallel planks, slabs, or rails > [noun] > laid with rails > rail
rail?1608
turn-plate1797
gully1800
plate rail1801
plate1807
tram-plate1807
tramway plate1825
track-rail1877
1807 Trans. Soc. Arts 25 87 Improved tram-plates for carriages on rail roads.
1824 T. G. Cumming Illustr. Origin Rail & Tram Roads 18 We find the flat rail, or tram plate, almost entirely superseded by the edge rail.
1829 Mechanics' Mag. 12 132 The sort of rail employed is that called the edge-rail, in contradistinction to the flat rail or tram-plate.
1838 Osborne's Guide to the Grand Junction Railway 7 In the year 1776 Mr. Carr introduced the use of tram-plates in the Duke of Norfolk's colliery at Sheffield. These plates had an upright ledge or flange, from 2½ to 4 inches high, which served to keep the wheels of the trams or waggons on the line.
1849 G. C. Greenwell Gloss. Terms Coal Trade Northumberland & Durham 16 The tram-plates, or other iron or metal way.
1894 R. O. Heslop Northumberland Words Plates, sometimes called tram-plates, the rails on which colliery trams are run. The rails used on our railway lines are still known by the workmen as plates.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1914; most recently modified version published online June 2019).
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n.1807