Via the 1830s, railroads were carrying containers which could be transferred to other modes of transport. The Liverpool and Manchester Railway in the UK was one of those, using "basic rectangular timber packing containers" to Express coal from Lancashire collieries to Liverpool, where a crane transferred them to horse-drawn carriages. https://beckettuoesf.tribunablog.com/rumored-buzz-on-shipping-containers-for-sale-40914931