[f. TRAM sb.2 + PLATE sb.] 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.
1807. Trans. Soc. Arts, XXV. 87. Improved tram-plates for carriages on rail roads.
1824. T. G. Cumming, Rail & Tram Roads, 18. We find the flat rail, or tram plate, almost entirely superseded by the edge rail.
1829. Mechanics’ Mag., XII. 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 21/2 to 4 inches high, which served to keep the wheels of the trams or waggons on the line.
1851. Greenwell, Coal-trade Terms Northumb. & Durh., 16. The tram-plates, or other iron or metal way.
1894. [see PLATE sb. 8].
