Flat wagons, usually have a full-length deck (or 2 decks on car transporters) with little or no superstructure. They are designed for the transportation of goods that are not weather-sensitive. Some flat wagons were able to be covered completely by sheets. Unlike open merchandise wagons with sides, the loading area is entirely open and accessible once any cover is removed. Typical goods transported by these railway wagons were: vehicles, engines, large pipes, metal beams, wire coils, wire mesh, half-finished steel products, (sheets, coils, pipes, bars and plates), containers, rails, sleepers and complete sections of railway track.
A specific design of flat was the Conflat wagon for containers. Containers were designed to carry a number of loads, furniture, goods and frozen products in insulated versions, these specialist flat wagons were designed to carry containers and were fitted with vacuum brakes due to the fragile nature of the products carried.
NVR Wagon Group 