The use of containers placed on railway flat wagons for the carriage of furniture and other goods has its origins in the early 1900s. The pre-Grouping era saw the development of this practice and there are photographs of privately-owned furniture containers being carried on short, flat LBSCR road vehicle/machinery wagons.
The practice was developed by the “Big Four” railway companies, which produced their own containers which could be transhipped onto company carts or motor vehicles for local collection/delivery. Containers became standardised between the companies with the introduction of RCH standard dimensions, the most common being the “B” size which could be carried on or in a standard railway wagon. Variations were built to accommodate specific goods such as bicycles (BC) and furniture (BK) the general merchandise B and BD types as well as the half size A Type
British Railways attempted to develop container use to retain and recover certain business by running dedicated container trains in certain parts of the country and regularly shipping containers to and from Northern Ireland.
NVR Wagon Group 