plateway

plural plateways

1. An early form of railway using L-shaped iron rails.

   The late Mr. Clement E. Stretton wrote that it was decided in 1785 to lay a plateway "from the dock at Loughborough to Nanpanton, a distance of three miles, but this system of plateway had to be abandoned, as the Road Commissioners would not allow a ledge to project upwards in their road."

   1939 July, Charles E. Lee, “Swannington: One-Time Railway Centre”, in Railway Magazine, page 3