The story
Cargowaggon was founded in Frankfurt, Germany by Swiss shipping company Danzas, to undertake trans-European shipment of customers rail cargo. The company specified and purchased wagons from mainly German manufacturers, which were then sub-leased or hired to customers.
The company was started through an invitation to manufacture and manage new rail vehicles for Ford Europe in 1979, to allow transportation of motor vehicle sub-assemblies between various European factories. By 1997 jointly owned by Australian business services company Brambles Industries, and Danzas, the company was purchased by GE Capital Services.
In May 1998, GE bought Tiphook in England, which operated 2,100 railway wagons under the Tiphook brand.
By 1999, the newly named GE Capital Rail Services had integrated Cargowaggon GmbH and International Wagon Services Ltd/Tiphook Rail Ltd, resulting in a company with offices in the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Sweden. The company had in excess of 4,600 wagons, of which 2,000 were suitable for Channel Tunnel traffic. In 1999 the fleet includes wagons for intermodal, automotive, infrastructure, construction, steel, hazardous and general cargoes.
From Wikipedia’s article on GE Capital Rail Services (Europe), shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3