WI palletizing or standard standard cargo containers between the Wars

[Anime Ninja]

So after WW1, the UK wanted to have a way to ship more goods easier and quicker. Someone got an idea to load them all on a standard pallet and the pallets needed to fit in a container that could be quickly loaded/off loaded at the docks and place on flatbeds of trains.

How long if the UK really wanted that to be done would it take, as well for the container on flat beds what would the max sizes be to be able to work with the track designs that they had? As well what sort of design would the ship have with the 20/30 tech that would meet the needs for convoys. Okay speed, cheap and quick to build.

What would be the major issues that they would face in the world? Could they get the Empire/Commonwealth to go with it? Would the longshore unions try and block it?

 

[Dorknought]

Something like Seatrain goes mainstream?

Seatrain Lines - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The original 1928 shipment aboard Seatrain caused a labor issue that foretold similar issues later with container ships when Cuban stevedores demanded that they not only unload the rail cars from the ship but unload and repack the rail car contents before turning the cars over to Cuban railways. Seatrain reached agreement with labor but the issue was a precursor to similar labor problems with containers in other ports.

 

[perfectgeneral]

You need locked steel boxes to keep the dock "handlers" out. There is nothing to pack. It is one box. You probably also need to start with military freight and logistics to marginalise the unions while establishing precedent and infrastructure.
25ft long by 9.5ft wide by 7.5ft tall internally? Yard square pallets/rolling cages? I really don't remember the loading gauges on UK rail routes at that time. I would expect truck size and crane weight capacity to be factors too. Say a 25ton limit?

 

[e of pi]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conta...ail_wagon_(CJ_Allen,_Steel_Highway,_1928).jpg

 

[perfectgeneral]

Horse drawn multimodal is not the future. A "prime mover" flatbead could take something much longer.