In 1974 the Joint Railway Commissioners lead by Mr Philip Shirley of the PTC of NSW, introduced the Railways of Australia Container Express concept.

With 500 GC containers and 500 VC containers ordered from Freighter Industries Ltd this was the largest order to be placed and these containers were suitable for all types of containerised traffic. The ventilated VC container was particularly suitable for Tropical Fruit traffic from Far North Queensland to the southern markets in Sydney and Melbourne.

Later in 1982 VR introduced 80 VGC containers to supplement the Interstate pool these containers were also constructed by Freighter Industries Ltd however to a slightly different design.