Old Sugar Beet Hoppers???

[rustbeltrailroad]

Hi everyone, I would like to mine your brains again. Before the SGVY giant hoppers (ex-GMO, ICG...) what hoppers were used to move sugar beets around the Bay Valley? I think the giant SGVY hoppers are relatively new to the job because I do not remember them at all in the 1990s when I spent a lot of time exploring the area.
Thanks so much in advance for any thoughts,
Martin

[AARR]

I think the original sugar beet cars were from GM&O and are still being used today. Because they are mostly captive to one railroad they are exempted from some equipment/maintenance costs. Maybe someone can inform us what those differences are.

The sugar beet service started around 1994 at 200 cars annually and has built up to around 1500 annually if what I've heard is accurate.

[rustbeltrailroad]

The sugar beet service started around 1994 at 200 cars annually and has built up to around 1500 annually if what I've heard is accurate.

I think this is accurate except the the "start date". I have been closely studying the structures and there are beet dump chutes for rail that have not been used since I guess the 1980s, particularly at the Carrollton facility. I have also seen old black/ white photos of wooden gondolas full of beets in the bay valley area. Here is what loading recently looks like in deckerville: https://youtu.be/2WAC3mckfz4 And here are the local facilities which still exist. https://www.michigansugar.com/growing-p ... wing-area/ I bet large quad hoppers in the 1980s in the C&O family or leased from other roads. ? . ? .

[AARR]

CSX lost the sugar beet business and HESR resumed it after Monitor had shipped exclusively by truck for years. I'm pretty sure it resumed in the early 1990's and 94 is what pops into my little brain.

Also, when HESR resumed the sugar beet business the connector at Reese between their Sebewaing Sub and ex-TSB Branches (which they acquired in 1992) wasn't built yet so for the first year or two the sugar beets were unloaded somewhere around Saginaw (IIRC) and trucked to Bay City. After the connector was built HESR would interchange with CMGN at Harger for direct delivery to the Bay City plant (IIRC). I might be a little mixed up on this last point and if so hopefully someone can correct me.

The sugar beet service started around 1994 at 200 cars annually and has built up to around 1500 annually if what I've heard is accurate.

I think this is accurate except the the "start date". I have been closely studying the structures and there are beet dump chutes for rail that have not been used since I guess the 1980s, particularly at the Carrollton facility. I have also seen old black/ white photos of wooden gondolas full of beets in the bay valley area. Here is what loading recently looks like in deckerville: https://youtu.be/2WAC3mckfz4 And here are the local facilities which still exist. https://www.michigansugar.com/growing-p ... wing-area/ I bet large quad hoppers in the 1980s in the C&O family or leased from other roads. ? . ? .

[CAT345C]

And in later years those SGVY cars were used in ballast service. You wanna talk about a pain in the rear. They can only load stone in about the bottom 5' of the car. You could make it about 300' then you had to stop and change gates.

[BerkshireKid]

CAT,
Those SGVY cars are still used for both services.

[GreatLakesRailfan]

...And here are the local facilities which still exist. https://www.michigansugar.com/growing-p ... wing-area/

I'm sure you're already aware that not every one of the facilities on that map has rail service. For example, the beet piling grounds near Sandusky are about a quarter mile from where the Sandusky Branch used to run before it was pulled up in the early '90s. And I don't think Verona has seen service since the line to Harbor Beach was removed. Does anyone know if the facility in Ruth still loads rail cars? The past couple times I was up there it looked like they'd gone to truck only up there.