Nostalgia & History > Southern Pacific beet train.

Slover (Colton) CA.May 26 1996.
SP 183-131 West.
Helper SP 260-267.

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How do the beats move now?

bluesboyst Wrote:
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> How do the beats move now?

Beats me! (Sorry)

They move to the beet of a different drummer now days.
RB

The sugar market moved to corn fructose.

There is some sugar beet growing and production into sugar in the northern plains area, into Idaho as well. Mostly truck traffic into the older plants. Pretty much zilch in Southern California, the well known SP era plants have been mothballed or simply torn down. The significant smell and industrial activity of sugar beets doesn't fit into the modern subdivision model of today's California.

Not to mention the movement of sugar beets by train doesn't fit into the UP Mainline Intermodal scheme. Looking back it's interesting how well SP was able to handle the spot market for sugar beets from the field into the sugar plants. The wood beet racks were a phenomena by themselves.

TCnR Wrote:
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> The sugar market moved to corn fructose.
>
> There is some sugar beet growing and production
> into sugar in the northern plains area, into Idaho
> as well. Mostly truck traffic into the older
> plants. Pretty much zilch in Southern California,
> the well known SP era plants have been mothballed
> or simply torn down. The significant smell and
> industrial activity of sugar beets doesn't fit
> into the modern subdivision model of today's
> California.
>
> Not to mention the movement of sugar beets by
> train doesn't fit into the UP Mainline Intermodal
> scheme. Looking back it's interesting how well SP
> was able to handle the spot market for sugar beets
> from the field into the sugar plants. The wood
> beet racks were a phenomena by themselves.

The company would tell the SP what the acreage was for a certain dump in terms of cars needed for the campaign

"Da beets. Da beets".
If you remember where this came from you are older than dirt, like me.

First time I saw that was from Bill Shippen's SP magazine

Great video of a long gone operation. I remember the white cars with the wire screen extensions parked near San Juan Bautista on the Coast Line in the early 90's. Drove by the spot last weekend and the beet loader is still there, but totally unused and covered in graffiti. When did they stop using the wooden beet racks?

Nathan

atsf121 Wrote:
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> Great video of a long gone operation. I remember
> the white cars with the wire screen extensions
> parked near San Juan Bautista on the Coast Line in
> the early 90's. Drove by the spot last weekend
> and the beet loader is still there, but totally
> unused and covered in graffiti. When did they
> stop using the wooden beet racks?
>
> Nathan

1993 fall campaign in Oregon was the last use of wooden cars

Sounds like C. T. Rogoza to me!