As railway freight traffic expanded, warehouses became an important category of ancillary station buildings, used mainly for the temporary storage, loading, unloading, and transfer of goods. They were generally located within freight yards or near station buildings and were connected directly to freight sidings to facilitate the handling of railway consignments.

The scale of warehouses varied considerably according to the class and importance of the station. Third-class stations such as Xiaoxihe and Shaheji generally had relatively small warehouses of similar form, while second-class stations such as Chuzhou and Mingguang were provided with several warehouse buildings. At Pukou Station, the southern terminus of the Tianjin–Pukou Railway, the volume of freight transfer was much greater, and nine warehouses were once concentrated along the Yangtze River waterfront.

Most of these warehouses were primarily utilitarian and relatively simple in architectural form, although pitched roofs, gables, and occasional British decorative details can still be observed. As railway freight operations and station layouts changed, many early warehouses were demolished or abandoned. Surviving examples now provide important physical evidence for the study of early railway freight facilities.