Expansion of Container Traffic.

Container movement for merchandise of all kinds steadily increases throughout Europe. In Britain, the use of containers is expanding rapidly, and today almost every class of freight may be handled expeditiously and safely by container. In a modified form, the containers generally favoured represent the upper portion of a railway wagon which may be carried with equal facility on rail chassis or road vehicle. The containers vary in length in Britain from approximately seven to fourteen feet, and in general a carrying capacity in the neighbourhood of four tons is most common. The closed types are fitted with end doors, usually comprising a half-drop door at the bottom and a pair of swing doors above. Certain containers also have side doors, while in the open type the stock has drop doors on each side and at one end.

Among the latest types of container to be introduced on the Home lines are numbers of insulated containers for the carriage of meat. The Southern Railway uses large numbers of units of this type in connection with meat imports at Southampton Docks, and much of the meat coming to Britain from New Zealand is conveyed over the group railways in this convenient and expeditious fashion.