" ... and then a breviated real world."
I'll do this little bit because it's easiest.
Here in Australia, and I think it's also true in most of the world, the railroads do the line haul of containers from one major city to another.
Each major city in Australia has at least one container terminal equipped with multiple spurs (sidings), hard standing areas and container lifting equipment. The containers are delivered by truck from factories, warehouses, ... and loaded either directly onto the freight cars or grounded and then loaded onto freight cars later.
At the destination the opposite occurs - unload either directly onto trucks or store for a later pick-up.
At all of the larger terminals there is an almost continuous steam of trucks entering and leaving. In fact, at some terminals slots must be pre-booked (and paid for) by the trucking companies during the peak periods.
Containers have completely revolutionized the movement of goods. It seems that there is little that cannot be moved in containers - manufactured components; white goods; furniture; bulk products like grains; liquids; container sized pallets for carrying items like chlorine gas cylinders and steel reinforcing mesh; military equipment; ... . Obviously it is a highly efficient method of moving goods from one city to another.
Phil
