ABSTRACT
We would first set out shortly in historic sequence the stages by which the railway companies have gradually arrived at a fairly complete arrangement for, shall I say, indiscriminate user of each others wagons, or what is generally termed “ common user.” The privately-owned wagons (650,000 out of a total British stock of about 1,400,000) still remain, of course, outside the arrangement, as well as certain types of railway owned wagons, such as stock constructed for specific requirements of traffic originating on an individual company's system, e.g. banana vans, refrigerator cars, trollies, etc.
