1. An artificial road or a line of rails in a colliery upon which the coal wagons are run.
1727. De Foe, Eng. Tradesm., xlvi. (1841), II. 173. [A coal wagon] which by the means of an artificial road, called a wagon-way, goes with the help of but one horse … to the nearest river.
1837. Hebert, Engin. & Mech. Encycl., II. 375. The intended rail-road, or ‘waggon-way,’ as it was termed.
attrib. 1764. London Mag., March, 145/1. If the waggon-way-rails … be wet sometimes, a man cannot stop the waggon.
2. A road made for the passage of wagons; also a track made by wagons.
1764. Museum Rust., II. lii. 148. A Letter … on the Advantages of making good Roads, or Waggon-Ways, in a Farm.
1877. Raymond, Statist. Mines & Mining, 213. A wagon-way—not a road—has been made across this divide, by which heavy machinery has been hauled over.
