Intermodal freight transport
Coal containers (called "loose boxes" or "tubs") were soon deployed on the early canals and railways and were used for road/rail transfers (road at the time meaning horse-drawn vehicles).
In 1841, Isambard Kingdom Brunel introduced iron containers to move coal from the vale of Neath to Swansea Docks.
By the outbreak of the First World War the Great Eastern Railway was using wooden containers to trans-ship passenger luggage between trains and sailings via the port of Harwich.
The early 1900s saw the first adoption of covered containers, primarily for the movement of furniture and intermodal freight between road and rail.
By modern standards these containers were small, being 1.5 or 3.0 meters (4.9 or 9.8 ft) long, normally wooden and with a curved roof and insufficient strength for stacking.
Truck trailers were first carried by railway before World War II, an arrangement often called "piggyback", by the small Class I railroad, the Chicago Great Western in 1936.
In the United Kingdom, the big four railway companies offered services using standard RCH containers that could be craned on and off the back of trucks.
The double-stack rail cars design significantly reduces damage in transit and provides greater cargo security by cradling the lower containers so their doors cannot be opened.
Variations exist, including open-topped versions covered by a fabric curtain are used to transport larger loads.
Handling equipment can be designed with intermodality in mind, assisting with transferring containers between rail, road and sea.
These can include: According to the European Commission Transportation Department "it has been estimated that up to 25% of accidents involving trucks can be attributable to inadequate cargo securing".
Conventional Load Securing methods and materials such as steel banding and wood blocking & bracing have been around for decades and are still widely used.
A third set of locks is planned as part of the Panama Canal expansion project to accommodate container ships up to 12,000 TEU in future, comparable to the present Suezmax.
In North America, Australia and Saudi Arabia, where vertical clearances are generally liberal, this depression is sufficient for two containers to be loaded in a "double-stack" arrangement.
In Europe, height restrictions imposed by smaller structure gauges, and frequent overhead electrification, prevent double-stacking.
Containers are therefore hauled one-high, either on standard flatcars or other railroad cars – but they must be carried in well wagons on lines built early in the Industrial Revolution, such as in the United Kingdom, where loading gauges are relatively small.
[15] Trucking is frequently used to connect the "linehaul" ocean and rail segments of a global intermodal freight movement.
[16] As an example, since many rail lines in the United States terminate in or around Chicago, Illinois, the area serves as a common relay point for containerized freight moving across the country.
Many of the motor carriers call this type of drayage “crosstown loads” that originate at one rail road and terminate at another.
For example, a container destined for the east coast from the west will arrive in Chicago either via the Union Pacific or BNSF Railway and have to be relayed to one of the eastern railroads, either CSX or Norfolk Southern.
Of course because of the requirement for the lowest weight possible (and very important, little difference in the viable mass point), and low space, specially designed containers made from lightweight material are often used.
