I'm wondering if these Sugar Beet gondolas always ran as "unit" trains on the SP? The pictures I've seen of them are always of complete trains, never a few mixed in with other general merchandise. I ask because I've only got 6 of the Intermountain ones and can't decide whether to put them in the stay or go pile. Thanks for any clarification. Paul
Back in the 50's I had to wait for them often at a crossing on my way to work. The train was going to the sugar processing plant in south Santa Ana, California. My recollection is between 10 and 15 cars. In all the years that I lived near the plant, I can't recall ever seeing the beet cars as a part of any mixed car train.
A local may have picked up a few here and there, but they usually always ran in unit trains. Like I said, the smaller fields that only needed a few cars might have moved in locals, but it was rare.
In view of the general view that they were unit trains, they've now moved over to the "To Go" pile. Some further grubbing around on the web supports this view. I had planned to use the half dozen to fill out a late 1960's SP train but I can always do that with other, more appropriate, items. Thanks again. Paul
Well to answer my own question, not always in unit trains it seems. In SP Historic Diesels V10, there is a pic of an F7 lash-up at Martinez with 3 sugar beets behind the locos. Prototype for everything kicks in, again. Paul
While on the topic of sugar beets. Has anybody had any success modeling a load for these cars? And if so; how and what did you use? Unfortunately “Hay Brother’s” doesn’t produce one, even though I practically begged them too, and my own attempts have been sad to say the least.
The ones I had were from Moclava Model Works. They came in a 6 pack - 60-521. Don't think they're still available? I'm also surprised HB hasn't produced a load for this car
Sugar Beets Generally they were unit consists, running from the field to the factory. Seldom would you have a few of them because the load really wasn't used for much else than sugar production. Still I have some shots of 5 units...15 units presumably going to a small processor? As for the loads, we are working on some now, have been batting around what to use as a medium for the pattern. In N scale, some sort of seed will work. Joe MTL
I used Celery Seeds for my Sugar Beet loads and they are very close to right on...... Check them out here..... Sugar Beet Cars Progress - TrainBoard.com
True....we do not make a load for these cars. We looked into it when Intermountain first released the cars in assembled form and decided that due to the interior ribbing in that car a sugar beet load would not work well with our business model of "Ready to use / no modifications needed". As mentioned, several sources have released loads for the Dimi-Trains/Tichy/Intermountain versions of this car in the past. They include Period Miniatures, Mocalova, Fine-N-Scale and I beleive NSN-2 as well. To dispel any rumors....HAY BROTHERS has absolutely no plans to manufacture a sugar beet load for the Intermountain or Micro-Trains sugar beet cars at this time. BTW: unit trains of sugar beets ran on the SP in the late 1960's - early 1970's from somewhere west of Phoenix to the Spreckels Sugar plant south of Chandler Arizona. They were some of the first trains I saw and waved at when my family moved to a home within sight of the tracks in Tempe Arizona.
Jeff (4X2DSP) uses Anise seed. He's also a sadist and uses them *without* glue.. So if you derail the beet train, it's a mess.. I'm gonna use Anise as well, but I think I'll glue mine in. Yeah, I'm a chicken Jeff.. Fine N Scale has also done a load for these that is out of this world.. http://www.finenscale.com/loads.html From what I know, the beets are hand rolled. Really the bomb!
While not familar with the sugar beet operations further south I did grow up in sugar beet country in Eastern Montana and Western North Dakota. Although that was in the 1950s I remember some of the Np and Gn operations. Beets where staged in large piles at sidings using a combination scale and unloader that was self propelled. These piles were humongous in size. Usually power for these sites was a single GP unit and since steam was still around a NP W class Mike. Normal unit consists would be about 40 cars brought into the Holly Sugar staging yards. However the local way freights also would pick up cars to fill out a train and since grain harvest was still in operation there were movements of 40 and 50 foot boxcars from some of the remote grain elevators along with the usual assortment of tank cars and flats. Depending on the power of the local the beet cars ranged from 10 to maybe 20 cars to fill out a local. My thoughts would be to keep the cars and add a few more and model the local way freight filling out a mixed train. And speaking of mixed trains, further modeling interest was the practice of using a combine on the local mixed when the Gas Electric was down for service. Thus a consist might come into town with an assortment of general service cars, a few feul tanks maybe ten beet hoppers trailed by the combine and caboose.
I think a major problem of this load is that cast loads are quite heavy, and they would make the cars very top-heavy (does this word exist in English?? ) Celery or anise seeds glued to a piece of styrene might be the best way.
Yes. After Newton's Law is applied to said "top-heavy" item, you can tell the result without looking by just listening... "*%&&(#%*%&#!!!!!!!" :tb-biggrin:
I hope no one that is using seeds to represent sugar beets will take offense, but sugar beets are roots, and I have yet to find a seed that resembles them. I have grown sugar beets, so perhaps I am a bit more fussy about what they look like. For years I have tried to model "modern" (mid 1980s until they quit running a few years back) southern Idaho sugar beet trains. Now, I need N scale sugar beets loads for semi-trailers since many of the sugar beet dumps are located adjacent to the Union Pacific mainline, I am still including them on my modules even if though they currently do not produce any revenue for the railroad. And of course I need the huge piles of them that are found at the beet dumps as well. (Without sugar beets, the modeling "season" for my railroad cannot go past about the third week of September.) Basically, what we need are irregularly shaped cones a scale 12 to 16 inches long and about 6 to 10 inches in diameter at the "base" of the cone (top of the beet) Carter
These are Colorado beets. I suppose they are the same as in California. This was taken at the Holly sugar beet refinery in Delta, Colorado.
After seeing the photo Russ posted, perhaps not all sugar beets look the same. The ones grown in Utah and Idaho tend to be rather elongated. Carter
