Tramway (industrial)

Tramways (not to be confused with a system of passenger carrying trams) are lightly laid railways, sometimes worked without locomotives. The term is not in use in North America but in common use in the United Kingdom, and elsewhere, where British Railroad terminology and practices had large influences on management practices, terminology, and railroad cultures such as Australia, New Zealand, and those parts of Asia that consulted with British experts when undergoing modernization. In New Zealand, they are commonly known as bush tramways, while in parts of Australia where American experts were influential, the term is less common. They generally do not carry passengers, although staff may make use of them, either officially or unofficially—and are often not meant to be permanent.

Tramways can take many forms, sometimes just tracks temporarily laid on the ground to move materials around a factory, mine or quarry. Many, if not most, are narrow gauge railway technologies. At the other extreme they could be complex and lengthy systems, such as the Lee Moor Tramway in the county of Devonshire, England, in the United Kingdom.

Motive power can be manual, animal (especially horses and mules), cable hauled by stationary engine, or utilize small locomotives.

The term was originally applied to wagons running on primitive tracks in early England and Europe. The name seems to date from around 1517 and to be derived from an English dialect word for the shaft of a wheelbarrow—in turn from Low German traam, literally, beam.

The tracks themselves were sometimes known as gangways, dating from before the 12th century, being usually simply planks laid upon the ground literally "going road". In south Wales and Somerset the term "dramway" is also used, with vehicles being called drams.

The alternative term is "Wagonway" (and Wainway or Waggonway) which originally consisted of horses, equipment and tracks which were used for hauling wagons.

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