A sweet video about Espee's sugar beet trains from the farms to Holly Sugar's refinery
SOUTHERN PACIFIC SUGAR BEET STORY - YouTube
If your line is in the Rocky Mountain or Pacific Coast states, the load out facility could be a nice source of revenue for your railroad (it could be a rural short line) and you could build a whole layout with the load outs and the refinery (loads in, empties out).
Walthers offers a SP sugar beet car.
https://www.walthers.com/drop-bottom-beet-gon-sp-f5150d
If you are into weathering, from the looks of the video, you could go wild on a fleet of these
Walthers offers the SD9 in Espee livery WalthersProto HO scale EMD SD9 diesel | ModelRailroader.com (trains.com)
If you want to look at the operation in the age of steam, consider Great Western in Colorado "The Great Western Railway of Colorado (reporting mark GWR) operates about 80 miles (129 km) of track in Colorado and interchanges with the Union Pacific Railroad as well as the BNSF Railway. It is currently a subsidiary of OmniTRAX but was founded in 1902 to serve the Great Western Sugar Company and other sugar beet and molasses companies in Colorado, and built by another Great Western subsidiary, Loveland Construction Company.[1][2] It also operated passenger services from 1917 to 1926. Their route consists of a line from Loveland to Johnstown, Colorado, where it splits to Miliken and Longmont. Going north out of Kelim is Windsor where once again the line splits to go to their industrial park and Greeley, or Fort Collins. It has since expanded service to include customers such as Anheuser-Busch, Eastman Kodak and Simplot."
Great Western 2-10-0 #90 now toils for the Strasburg - you could use a Bachman Russian Decapod as creditable substitute. OR if you have the funds, a brass model is available.
Great Western No. 90/Gallery | Locomotive Wiki | Fandom
Bachmann HO scale Russian Decapod 2-10-0 | ModelRailroader.com (trains.com)
https://www.brasstrains.com/BrassGuide/Pdg/Detail/23124/HO-Steam-Non-Articulated-Empire-Midland-Model-Company-Decapod-GREAT-WESTERN-2-10-0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pVWw57R350
Minnesota is currently the largest producer of sugar beets. Michigan and Nebraska also grow sugar beets.
Jeff
They are grown here in Montana as well. We also have a sugar refinery in Billings. Now they are trucked to the plant but they were sent by rail up to the late 60s from what I understand. (I have some outside braced combo hoppers lettered for the "Q" for just that purpose. They came as undecorated cars in a collection that I was given from an older gentleman who couldn't model anymore which I lettered and weathered. They are pass through cars as I model a rail yard area. I strech it a little to fit my era.)
Walthers offers a SP sugar beet car. https://www.walthers.com/drop-bottom-beet-gon-sp-f5150d
Those are actually Intermountain sugar beet gons, formerly Red Caboose, Being an SP fan I have around 60 of them - they used to run by my neighborhood in north Davis CA on the way to the Spreckles sugar processing plant.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
A lot of sugar beets are grown in the Red River Valley. Red River separates Minnesota and North Dakota. Crystal Sugar is a Minnesota company.
I remember seeing video (perhaps in the film "Empire on Parade") of Great Northern hauling sugar beets in hopper cars.
(Off-topic, but the song "Red River Valley" refers to this Red River, not the one in Texas. The song originated in the area around Winnipeg Manitoba, where the river flows into Lake Winnipeg.)
For loads you can use Caraway seeds.
Dan
DanRaitz For loads you can use Caraway seeds. Dan
You can also use fenugreek seeds as well which is what I used for my loads.
FRRYKidNow they are trucked to the plant but they were sent by rail up to the late 60s from what I understand.
Yes they did. Wifey grew up in Billings, not far from the plant, and the NP used a steam switcher, until about 1960, to get the beets from the yard to the plant.
She lived on a street next to the spur to to plant.
Mike.
My You Tube