Sweet Thingsalong the High IronFrom the sugar you sprinkle oncorn flakes to the sweet frostingon birthday cakes, sugar is a bigpart of Americans’ daily diet. Beet sugar accounts for about50% of domestic sugar productionand has been an important sourceof railroad traffic since the late1800s. From the time the beets areharvested to when the sugar hitsyour supermarket or restaurant,there’s a good chance it hastraveled part of the way by rail.

The Plant and the ProcessSugar beets are large,football-sized roots thatgrow mostly in northernclimates. Because they arehardy, the beet sugarindustry blossomed in thePacific Northwest, upperMidwest and on theprairies. Beets are alsorotational crops andrequire the large growingareas available in theseregions. During the fallbeet campaign (harvest),growers truck them totrackside loadingfacilities where

they’re dumped into high-sidedgondolas or hoppers. They moveto mills, often in solid trains, thatoperate for only three to fourmonths each year.

Beet sugar factories wereoriginally located in thesegrowing regions. As productionincreased and new growing areaswere opened, beets traveledfarther from field to factories—mostly by rail. Mills receive thebeets in a below-track pit, andthey’re stored outdoors in largepiles. Some beet dumps are ontrestles or fills; from there thebeets are moved into the mainbuilding in a flume.

Modern plants can processbetween 5,000 and 15,000 tons ofbeets every 24 hours. The refiningprocess extracts just over 250pounds of sugar, 80 pounds ofmolasses and about 100 pounds ofbeet pulp which is pelletized andused as an additive in animal feed.

Older plants like Greatlandprocessed considerably less. For a look at how the refiningprocess works, visit the SugarKnowledge International Web site

at www.sucrose.com, or theMonitor Sugar Co. site atwww.monitorsugar.com.

Beet sugar factories like theprototype for the Greatland SugarRefining kit have been aroundsince the early 1900s. Through theyears, plants in Arizona,California, Colorado, Idaho,Michigan, Minnesota, Montana,Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio,Oregon, Texas, Washington andWyoming have helped satisfyAmerica’s sweet tooth.

Add a Little Sugar to your PikeThe Greatland Sugar Refining kitmakes it easy to bring an industrythat handles a variety of freightcars to your layout. The model isbased on plants constructed duringthe industry’s period of growth inthe early 1900s. The Greatland kitincludes the mill building,warehouse, powerhouse and beetdump track insert. Here are a fewideas and suggestions for settingup a sugar factory on your layout.

At the plant, incoming sugar beetsare pushed up a fill and dumpedinto a below-track bin wherethey’re either fed into a “wethopper” and washed, or moved

t h e m o d e l i n g s t o p

The Imperial/Holly Sugar refinery at Tracy, California, has beenmodernized extensively through the years, but the original buildings arestill at the heart of the complex. The plant received its last beets by railin 2000. Photo by Bob Gallegos.

WAREHOUSE 8-3/4" x 3-1/2" x 4-1/2"

MILL 9-1/8" x 6" x 7-1/2"

CHIMNEY RAMP

BOILER HOUSE 4-1/2" x 2-3/4"x 2-3/8" BEET DUMP

TRACK INSERT

933-3092 HO Greatland Sugar Refinery, $54.98

The Walthers 100-Ton 49' Quad Hopper 6-Pack, 932-49481, $69.98, offers CB&Q cars with special “Beet Service” lettering. Just add cast-resin Sugar Beet Loads, 933-1059 pkg(2) $6.98, to simulate incoming cars.

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into outdoor storage piles. Beetsare then fed into the plant buildingby a flume. A coal-fired power-house supplies the necessary powerfor the plant. Bagged sugar isstored in the warehouse untilloaded into box cars.

A few additional structures anddetails will bring even moreauthenticity to your scene. Mostmills produce molasses. You couldadd a molasses storage tank, suchas the oil or water tanks made by

Rix Products andthe Oil LoadingPlatform kit, 933-3104, $11.98, forloading tank cars.

Out in the beetand materialreceiving yard,consideradding ascalehouse/office using thenew CornerstoneSeries® Jim’s Repair Shop kit, 933-3527, $19.98. For post-1970sscenes, you might substitute theYard Office kit, 933-3517, $11.98.Most mills also have their ownwater tower. The new Built-up CityWater Tower, 933-2825 or 2826,$29.98, is a great-looking landmarkand includes decals that make iteasy to add your mill’s companyname to the tank.

Other details you could add includea scale platform, quickly built froma scribed styrene sheet andembedded in the ground next to thescalehouse, and wood bin walls forthe coal, coke and limestonestorage bins. If you’re modelingmills of the 1960s or later, add aloading facility for Airslide®

covered hoppers to the side of themill building using the Wall-MountDust Collectors kit, 933-3510,$9.98; the kit includes the awningand loading pipe in addition to thedust collectors.

As for modeling the sugar beets,take a trip to your local health foodstore and pick up fenugreek seeds.

They have irregular shapes and,once darkened with paint andalcohol/India ink washes, look justlike freshly harvested beets.

Keep Your Sugar Traffic MovingOver the years, beets have beentransported in all kinds of open-topcars including drop-bottomgondolas and hopper cars with orwithout side extensions. In the

very early days, specially builtbeet/coke cars were used. Asidefrom beet hoppers, plenty of othercars make appearances at sugarmills too. See the accompanyingchart for a quick reference; specificcars will vary by era and yourchosen prototype. ■

Coal Coke Limestone

Sugar Beet Storage PilesWater Tower

(Optional)

ScalehouseParking

Street

WarehouseMain Mill

BoilerhouseSmokestack

Molasses Tank (Optional)

Beet Dump To Mainline

Tank Car Loading Platform

This layout-sized track plan incorporates the sugar refinery and a fewadditional structures mentioned above. Coal, coke and limestone areunloaded from hopper cars using the Old-Time Coal Conveyors, 933-3520 $9.98.

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Sugar beet mills receive beets ina below-track pit.

The powerhouse and smokestackcan be placed anywhere near themill building.

Refined, bagged sugar is stored in the warehouse until loaded into boxcars or trucks.

50' Airslide® Covered Hoppers have been used for hauling bulk granulatedsugar since the 1960s. 932-3686, $14.98

Freight Cars used at Sugar Refineries

Car Type Commodity HandledWood Dump Cars w/Side Extensions Beets, Coke40' GS Gondolas Beets, Limestone, Coal, Coke50' Steel Gondolas LimestoneTwo-Bay Open Hoppers Beets, Coal, CokeThree-Bay Open Hoppers Beets, Coal, CokeFour-Bay Open Hoppers Beets, Coal, CokeTank Cars Molasses, SyrupsBox Cars Bagged Sugar, Pulp PelletsAirslide® Hoppers Bulk SugarCovered Hoppers Pulp Pellets

Note: Sugar beet trains ran with a mix of gondolas and coal or ballast hoppers—anything that was available for the campaign.

Get Your LayoutLooking Goodon PaperWhether hauling pulpwood andwood chips to paper mills ornewsprint to printing plants,railroads play a huge role inserving the paper industry. Two new freight cars, and thereintroduction of a popularCornerstone Series® kit, makeadding realistic paper industryoperations to your railroad easy.

Moving Piles of PulpwoodThe story begins in the“pineywoods” of the South, where cultivated softwood pinesare harvested. Trees arecut into five-footlengths and stackedon pulpwoodtrailers. Truckshaul the logs fromthe cutting areas totrackside reloads,where they’retransferred ontospecial flat carsdesigned tohandlepulpwood.

The new 50' Pulpwood Car isbased on those built by SouthernIron & Equipment (SIECO) for avariety of railroads, mostly servingsouthern forests. They feature thecharacteristic “V” deck, whichallows waste bark and water to fallthrough the floor, and are designedto carry “shortwood” logs buckedto 5' lengths. “V” decks are alsoused on similar 1960s-era cars andolder 40' pulpwood cars.

Cranesor self-unloadingtrucks arrange the logs in tworows between the bulkheads.These loads are simulated usingthe Walthers 50' Pulpwood CarLoad 933-1063, $9.98 (soldseparately).

Wood chips are very light andbulky; it takes an incrediblevolume to approach the maximumweight a freight car can handle.That’s why the prototypes for theGreenville 7,000 Cubic-FootWood Chip Hoppers are so large.Featuring tall sides with embossedpanels for added strength, thesecars can be rapidly unloadedthrough the six hopper bays on thebottom, making them popular withmills receiving chips.

Greenville7,000 Cubic-Foot WoodChip Hoppers haul chips between

specializedwood chippingplants orsawmills andpaper mills.

At the mill,chips aredumped into

a below-groundpit where they’re fed

onto conveyors and moved tolarge storage piles. The prototypeGreenville cars have been in useprimarily on southern railroads(where chips won’t freeze solid inthe winter) since the 1970s.

The models include hopper doorlatch details, interior bracing and

a heavy diecast chassis. For arealistic loading scene, use theWood Chip Car Loader, 933-3526,$9.98, near your sawmill or woodchipper. Add loads to your cars forloads-in/empties-out operationwith the Walthers GreenvilleWood Chip Hopper Load 2-Pack,933-1064, $9.98.

The DestinationThe Superior Paper Company givesyour railroad a destination for thesenew freight cars. Remember, papermills are a hotbed of railroadaction. Switchers are kept busy’round the clock shuttling carsbetween pulpwood piles and wood

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t h e m o d e l i n g s t o p

50' Pulpwood CarsRoadname Single Cars, Limited-Run

$14.98 each 2-Packs, $29.98CSX 932-5781 932-25781 NS 932-5782 932-25782Maine Central 932-5783 932-25783Atlantic Coast Line 932-5784 932-25784SOU 932-5785 932-25785Seaboard Coast Line 932-5786 932-25786MP 932-5787 932-25787Chattahoochee Industrial Railroad 932-5788 932-25788Undecorated 932-5780

Greenville 7,000 Cubic Foot Wood Chip HoppersRoadname Single Cars, Limited-Run

$17.98 each 2-Packs, $35.98CSX 932-5681 932-25681 MP 932-5682 932-25682NS 932-5683 932-25683UP 932-5684 932-25684Seaboard System 932-5685 932-25685SOU 932-5686 932-25686Kansas City Southern 932-5687 932-25687Georgia-Pacific 932-5688 932-25688Undecorated 932-5680

These ex-Chattahoochee Industrial Railroad cars are similar to theWalthers models. Use them as a guide for weathering your cars andloads. The beaters shown here very overloaded, but are used only tohaul logs about a mile between storage piles and the chippers at aWisconsin paper mill. Photo by Bob Gallegos

Greenville Hopper 932-5681

50' PulpwoodCar 932-5785;

shown with Pulpwood Load933-1063 painted and weathered

In the Chips

chip yard, the mill and the mainlineinterchange.

This impressive kit, based onpaper mills in use since the 1950s,has the buildings needed to add arealistic industry to your pike. Thebrick mill building, complete witha large door for box cars androoftop tank details, will be thecenterpiece of your paper millcomplex. Also included is a tall,corrugated-metal kraft mill withtall stacks, a pair of concrete pulptanks, rooftop tanks for the mill,piping details and realistic decals.

In your paper mill scene, add atrack on a fill and a below-trackbin for unloading wood chiphoppers; or build a pulpwoodstorage yard with unloading cranesand tall pulpwood storage piles.For paper industry modelinginformation, check out the bookTrains, Tracks & Tall Timber, 913-102, $49.98. ■

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Inspired by aLocomotive RideCyrus Osborn, general manager oflocomotive-builder EMD in 1944,was awestruck by the cab-windowview from the F series locomotivehe was riding through Colorado’sGlenwood Canyon. That night hesketched the first modern domecar on hotel stationery in his roomin Salt Lake City.

Impressed by the concept, theCB&Q in 1945 converted a flat-topped coach into the “SilverDome” with the addition of awrap-over glass roof. In a fewyears over 200 domes plied therails on western passenger trains,where spectacular scenery andgenerous mainline clearances

allowed the cars to be used. In theEast, only the B&O’s mainline hadclearances that could handle thetall cars between Chicago andWashington, D.C.

Over 100 dome cars enteredAmtrak® service in 1971, buttoday most are off the roster. VIA in Canada recently rebuilt its former Canadian Pacific cars.The popularity of domes isundeniable; when Amtrakdesigned its Superliners®, thewrap-over windows in theSightseer Lounge were patternedafter the windows of dome cars.

The new Walthers Budd DomeCoach incorporates all of thefeatures of other Budd cars,including appropriate car-ends,

skirting and underbody details foreach roadname. Other detailsinclude flush-fitting windows,working diaphragms and diecastGSC Commonwealth trucks.Inside the cars, you’ll find a fullinterior including dome seats andbuilt-in electrical contacts fordrop-in installation of the BuddDome Car Interior Lighting Kit,933-1065, $12.98, (soldseparately). Numberboard and carname decals are provided so youcan reproduce your favorite cars.

On your layout, add Budd DomeCoaches to your train consists asyou would a regular long-distancecoach. Many trains operated withmore than one—especially duringthe peak vacation season. ■

21"

10-3/4"MAIN BUILDING9-1/4" TALL

Budd Dome Coach, Via Rail Canada, 932-16483, $39.98

Walthers Budd Dome Coachessell for $39.98 each and areavailable in these schemes:

932-6481 Amtrak Phase I 932-6482 Amtrak Phase II932-6483 Amtrak Phase III932-6484 Amtrak Phase IV932-6485 ATSF 932-6486 PRR 932-6487 CB&Q 932-6488 NYC932-6489 CP932-6492 Rock Island 932-6493 SP932-6494 UP932-6495 Penn Central932-16481 D&H Coming Soon932-16482 IC Coming Soon932-16483 VIA Coming Soon932-6480 Undecorated

Wm K. Walthers, Inc. is an authorized Amtraksupplier. Amtrak is a registered service mark ofthe National Railroad Passenger Corporation.

Superior Paper Company, 933-3060, $99.98

11-7/8"

8"KRAFT MILL

17" TALL