E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Tramway or Tram Rails.
A railway for tram-carts or waggons, originally made of wooden rails. Iron rails were first laid down in 1738, but apparently were called “dram-roads” (Greek, dram-ein, to run). We are told there were waggons called drams (or trams). Benjamin Outram, in 1800, used stone rails at Little Eaton, Derbyshire; but the similarity between tram and Outram is a mere coincidence. Perhaps he was the cause of the word dram being changed to tram, but even this is doubtful. (See Rees’ Cyclopædia.)
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“Trams are a kind of sledge on which coals are brought from the place where they are hewn to the shaft. A tram has four wheels, but a sledge is without wheels.”—Brand: History of New-castle-upon-Tyne, vol. ii. p. 681. n. (1789)
