Definition of "tramroad"

About two hundred and fifty years ago, some genius, as unknown as the inventor of the lathe, laid the first wooden tramroad, to enable a horse to draw forty-two cwt. instead of seventeen.

1863, Charles Reade, Hard Cash‎

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.

1926, James A.H. Murray, A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles, volume X, part I, page 248, column 1

Immediately to the west of Coleorton, an important system of tramroads was built in connection with the Ashby-de-la-Zouch Canal.

1939 July, Charles E. Lee, “Swannington: One-Time Railway Centre”, in Railway Magazine, page 4