The Prototype Wet Hopper

The wet hopper was the final solution for unloading beet cars.  It solved the problem of beets frozen into a solid lump in an open hopper car if rain or a snowstorm got the beets wet and freezing temperatures solidified the mass.  The wet hopper had a large flume under the cars to collect beets and had a superstructure with hot water pipes to defrost a car full of beets and moveable hoses to wash the dirt from the beets and flush them into the flume. 

Luckily I have a friend in Colorado who used to work for the Great Western and had a recent project to make drawings of the Loveland wet hopper.  I also had a chance to take a few photos of the prototype in 1985 after the factory was shutdown. Unfortunately, I didn’t take near enough photos to capture all the details so some interpretation was needed.  Some of the proportions aren’t accurate since I depended on available sizes of brass tubing and styrene shapes.  And I cut down the length a bit to fit the space I had.  But it is good enough for government work!

This photo is from Burlington Bulletin #32 which features the CB&Q sugar trains in Colorado and is a great source of info. I suspect this photo is of the structure when it was fairly new. It looks pretty clean.

I took this photo of the wet hopper in 1985 after the plant closed. It’s looking well used at this point in time. You can see the hoses used to wash beets from the cars towards the front.  The hoses had “reach rods” extending back to the raised walkway that workers would used to direct the spray around the cars.  Notice how the first and third hose are pulled back. A bunch of defrost pipes can be seen hanging down in the rear. By the way, that's not me.

Another shot from 1985 showing the rear of the structure. The front is kind of boring since it has a corrugated steel wall to protect the workers from the Colorado wind.  The front wall will be removable on the model so I can show off the interior details. The blue pipes at the bottom were the feed pipes for the flume. The little building offered workers shelter from the wind.

The Sugar Beet Yard

A good sized part of the Loveland Yard supports the tracks leading to the wet hopper.  Loaded cars are stored here and moved four at a time into the wet hopper.  Empties are moved to an empty track. The 0-4-0 Dinky was used for this task because the spray from the wet hopper would tend to short out electrical circuits in a diesel switcher. It was a 24 hours per day job during the beet harvest.

After laying track in the yard, I made a temporary cardboard mockup of the beet hopper. In this case, “temporary” was eight years!  Based on my desired compression of the prototype, the wet hopper was sized for two 70-ton three bay hopper cars or three 50-ton two bay hopper cars. 

The Flume

Luckily I had a nice photo of the flume structure.  I have no idea where this came from but based on the light streak across the photo it was probably from my clumsy work.  The flume appears to be I-beams supported by concrete barriers with an I-beam supporting the track. Smaller I-beams were used as spacers to hold the rails in gauge. 

The first task was to make the pit for the flume. The yard is Homasote over plywood so it was an easy task to carve the Homasote to create the pit after the existing wet hopper track was removed.  The drawings provided by my friend gave a good idea of the size needed. 

I used styrene shapes over a styrene sheet base to make the support structure. The lengthways track supports are one  piece with separate pieces for the other supports.

Some grey concrete color paint with an overspray of rust created the basic coloring.  The rails will be painted a rust color and weathering powders will be used to add grunge later.  Bulgar wheat will also be added later to represent sugar beets in the flume. Some gloss gel medium will add a sense of wetness.

Wet Hopper Framework

The biggest part of the job is create the framework that supports the wet hopper components. 

My friend provided a nice drawing of the framework that was used for sizing.  I selected 1/8” H columns for the basic support structure. You can see the raised walkway on the left and the wash pipes and reach rods above it.

Using dimensions from the drawing I created some templates using CadRail-9 to use as patterns.  I put some Saran Wrap  over the templates to prevent the glue softened styrene from sticking to the template.  The angled braces are 1/16” channels.  After making a practice frame I discovered that butt joints between the vertical members and the top were very weak.  To correct this I drilled holes in the horizontal beam and used 0.032” brass wire and ACC to reinforce the joint.  I made sure to keep the reinforcements “inside” the structure to hide them.  A few of the reinforcements stick up above the upper beam to act as supports for lighting cables.

Drilling the holes was kind of fussy since the wire needed to align perfectly with the web of the vertical support.  My handy-dandy Proxxom motor tool and accessory drill press worked nicely for this precision work.

I made a base for the wet hopper from 0.080” sheet styrene and cut holes for the frames to sit in.  Note the low fences alongside the flume.  Workers would lean over these to access the door latches on the hoppers using sledge hammers to knock them open.   

Here are all seven frame pieces sitting in the base. The base holes were carefully cut with files to be a tight fit around the vertical posts. Note the frames also have the horizontal supports that hold the raised walkway.  The two end frames and the middle frame have the longer reinforcements for the cable supports.

A flat work surface was used to align the frame vertical and horizontal sections for gluing.  A square taped to the work surface kept things fairly square.  This was a fussy process.  The framework was built upside down on the work surface with the frames sitting vertically. The lengthwise top members were glued in place using weights and a small square to keep things lined up. Once everything was in place, the structure was turned right side up and the joints were reinforced with short styrene strips across the top. The bases were again used to make sure everything was aligned correctly. Note that the raised walkway is also in place to help align things.

Hot Water Pipes and Valves

There are two sets of hot water pipes. One is used for washing the beets into the flume and the other is to defrost frozen cars. I had a good drawing of the wash pipes and valves but had to fake the defrost piping.

The wash pipe system uses a ¼” tube for the main feed and 1/16” brass rod for the pipes leading to the hoses. A rough replica of the feed valve was made from 0.080” styrene.  An old casting of a 90 degree pipe bend was used to go from vertical main feed to the horizontal pipe. The drill press came in handy for drilling holes in the feed pipe to attach the valves and hose pipes.

A shorter piece of ¼” tubing was used for the defrost pipe feed.  Another bend casting was also used to transition from vertical to horizontal. The black blob at the bend represents a valve to control the flow to the defrosters. It is actually a piece of diesel truck side frame but looks OK to me.  The medium size pipes are 1/8” brass tube with the smaller spray pipes being 1/16” brass tube. More drill press work created holes to assemble everything.

The wash pipes and defrost pipes are supported by lengthwise 1/16” T-shaped beams. I needed an extra frame at the right side as a final support. Once it is glued in place, it will be supported by short concrete pillars. The prototype rear view shows that the defrost supports are a bit different than the main supports.  I also suspect that the front wall did not go as far as the defrost section.

Valves and Hoses

My friend supplied a detailed drawing of the wash hose valves, control handles and reach rod supports.  The note “This view from north” is looking through the front wall.  “View from the east” is from the left end of the wet hopper.  The washout hose valve is an 0.080” piece of styrene cut to shape.  The valve handle is made from 1/16” channel (a bit oversize but not too fragile). The control linkage will be 0.032” brass rod. 

A close up of the control handles mounted on reach rod supports.  The ring on the support is sized for a 1/16” brass tube. It is formed from 0.032” brass wire that goes through the reach rod support. The center beam has a hole drilled in it to accept the wire. 

Reach rods are 1/16” brass tube with a wire loop sized for the wash hose (about 3/32”). 

A view of the control handle, reach rod, wash pipe and hose.  The hose is small heat shrink tubing that fits nicely over the 1/16” wash pipe. At this point I feel that the reach rod is proportionally too thick based on prototype photos.  I will redo those using 0.032” rod with a loop formed on the end.  It will be a sloppier fit in the reach rod ring but the 1/16” tube is too tight anyway after to support was painted.

A view from the east end of the wet hopper. Yep, the reach rod is too thick, a scale 6” or so.  Kind tough for a guy to get his hands around.

Current Status of the Wet Hopper

Here is the current view of the wet hopper with three 50 ton hopper cars.  I did some cursory painting to cover the white styrene.  The extra defrost frame is attached and supported by concrete pillars.  Much detailing yet to do.

A view from the west (defrost) end.  Oops, looks like the walkway got misglued at the far end. There is always something!

More to come.

Good Heavens!

That's a great build out!  I"m not even a sugar beet modeler and this post was fascinating!

Wow

Fantastic build of a really distinctive prototype! It's coming together really well

Thanks ...

... for the nice comments! It's been a lot of trial and error work and learning.  The next one should be easier.  Luckily I only need one  

Very nice

Very nice job with a lot of detail.

Thanks George

George,

   I was just looking at the drawing that you shared with me as I am getting ready to build my version! Timing is everything look fansatic!

Mike

More Details

 The wet hopper frame work is mostly H-columns but it is stabilized with cross bracing.  This is mostly hidden from view by the corrugated sheet metal wind block but I will make the wind block removable so that interior details can be seen.  The cross braces are 0.020” brass rod attached to the columns with ACC cement.  The cross braces in each set are two rods bent into a V shape with the point of the Vs glued midway up the column. 

I should have taken an extra step to add small pieces in the inner channel of the column to act as attachment points. That seemed like a lot of work (36 separate pieces) so I simply glued the braces in with blobs of gap filling ACC.  It workout OK on this side but it was more problematical in the rear with more cross  braces.  The rear is mostly hidden from view so it will be OK.  

 I’ve added the extra frame piece to west end of the wet hopper to support the end of the defrost pipe. These are supported on concrete pillars and use 0.080” columns for bracing. This not visible on my prototype photos but I wanted to have something a little different on this end of the structure.   You can also see the rust weathering on the side of the rails over the pit.

 
A top view of the defrost end of the hopper.  The metal wind block will not cover the last two sections of the frame, again just for a difference.  The workers do not stand on this end so there is no need to protect them from the wind and it saves a few bucks during construction.

 
An obvious detail is the ladder at east end to allow workers to get to the wash platform.  This is from a Central Valley stairs kit. There will be a smaller one under this one leading down to the lower level where the main water valves are. 

 The is the back side of the frame work.  It also has cross braces (0.020” brass rod) attached in the same way as the front.  In addition there are vertical “tension rods” which I assume are there to keep the whole thing from collapsing when the water jets are turned on.  I’m not really sure of that but the drawing has a note labeling them  “tension rods”.  The white horizontal strips are styrene T shapes with holes drilled in the web to hold the 0.032” tension rods. 

 
A full view of the back. All the cross braces, supports and tension rods  are in. For something that is not very visible, it sure was a lot of work. The view from the left end will show some of this detail.

 
A closer view of the back.  If you look carefully you will note that the middle support strip is offset a tad to the left giving the tension rods a slight bend. I thought I was being pretty careful to align things properly bit it didn’t work out that way. By the time I discovered this (when I added the first tension rod), it was too late. The glue was set.

 
Another mostly hidden detail is the pipe galley under the rear of the wet hopper.  You can see a bit of this in one of the prototype photos. It is half hidden under the rear edge of the hopper base but I thought it was worth doing to some degree. It is a thin strip wood slab with some random pipe pieces thrown in for effect. The curved pipes at the left are pieces of sprue from some unknown kit.  The other pipes and supports are from a  Walthers piping kit. The valve handles are freight car brake wheels. One is on top of a brake cylinder acting as a valve body. 

Bent pipe (sprue) and valve handle.  Not much to see but it will give keen observers something to look at. The small ladder will go next to the pipe galley.

 
Upgraded reach rods and wash hoses.  The 1/16” rod was just too fat so I bent some out of 0.032” rod.  The hose is a piece of heat shrink tubing.  To keep the reach rods from falling off, I inserted some small brads in the hose ends to represent a sprinkler head (the real hoses were probably wide open) .  I didn’t want the reach rods to fit too tight around the hoses so the rods will slip right off. They will be tricky enough to add to the model without the reach rods falling off in the interior.

Next Steps

The next steps are finishing up some final details and overall painting.  The paint will be rattle can bright metallic silver with a dull coat to kill the chrome-like look.  India ink/alcohol weathering should produce the right amount of grime.  Rust and grime weathering powders  should complete the look.  

And, of course, I need to finish up the scenery around the wet hopper.  One thing I would like to do is to add a trailer truck addition to the wet hopper.   Trucks took over beet hauling from the railroad and it will be a nice detail in from the hopper. It will be strictly free lanced since there are few pictures of this activity.

The Completed Wet Hopper

After a long delay waiting for a “breakthrough” on detailing, I was inspired by completion of the pulp warehouse to finish up the wet hopper. It is now complete.

This is the normal view of the structure.  The corrugated sheet metal siding protects workers from the Colorado winter weather to some degree but the wind still blows right through most of it.  My Great Western source says the wet hopper was usually very wet and sticky when beets were being unloaded so  the wind break was much appreciated. Based on photos, other wet hoppers in the northern Colorado area didn’t have this refinement.

Unclothed, the wet hopper is a lot more interesting.  The main structure of H-beams and bracing is revealed along with the long platform the workers stand on to work the water nozzles. The left two cars are under the primary hoses that wash beets into the flume underneath the wet hopper and perform an initial cleaning of dirt and debris. The car on the right is positioned under the deicing pipes.  The beet harvest happens in the late fall and snow storms can strike at any time. The melting snow and cold nights tend to freeze the beets into a solid lump in the hopper car. Before the beets can be dumped, the cars require defrosting.  This view also shows the red handles used to control the water flow into the hoses.

The entrance to the wet hopper shows some of the details. On the lower level workers scurry around opening the hopper doors. A low railing keeps them out of the beet pit. The plates along the tracks cover the ends of the ties to avoid a tripping hazard. The upper platform is where the hose guys work. Each hose has a reach rod that is used to move the hose back and forth across the car to get all the beet flushed out. Seen below the upper platform is a small shack the workers could duck into to warm up a little. There was also a fire smoldering in a barrel by the ladder for additional warmth.

The other end of the wet hopper has the defrost pipes.  Even though the wet hopper appears to offer a “through”  track, cars are pushed in and pulled out of the other end. The opening and track here are to provide extra space to hold cars for defrosting.  Note the telephone-style wire holders on the vertical poles.  The beet yard is a 24-hour operation and yard flood lights are used at night. The wire on the holders route power from the factory to the rest of the yard.

A close-up of the hose mechanism.  The red arm in the rear controls the water flow to the hoses via the linkage to the hose valve. The main pipe behind the valves supplies all the water (quite a bit) to the hoses.  The worker is about to grab the reach rod to move the hose around.

Looking down into the beet pit shows the beets ready to be washed into the factory for processing.

Most of the time, dedicated Davenport 0-4-0T  saddle tankers called “Dinkies” were used to switch the wet hopper.  See http://www.steamlocomotive.info/F92001.cfmfor more details. The masses of water and steam would tend to short out diesel equipment so simple steam dinkies were used until the factories finally closed down in the 1980s. The “Docksider” shown here is about twice the size of a real dinky but I’ve not been able to find HO versions. They would be about the size of a N-scale 0-4-0.

The beet yard was organized carefully and filled with beet cars during the beet campaign.  In operation, the dinky would grab two or  four cars from a “loads” track, run them into the wet hopper, wait for them to be emptied while grabbing some coal and water for the dinky, pull the empties out of the hopper and shove them down the “empty” track. Rinse and repeat. One guy ran the dinky, doing all the work all by himself.

The lowly dinky parked next to the coal and water supply. The operator is probably in the warming shack grabbing a quick sandwich between runs.

My "Docksider" is a poor representation of a dinky. The paint color is pretty close but the decals are all wrong and it's way too detailed (dinkies did not have Walschaerts valve gear). Here is a photo of the real Loveland dinky hard at work.

The Rest of the Story

My apologies to Paul Harvey for stealing his tag line.  The wet hopper is finished but the area around it was still Homasote painted dirt brown. After adding scenery around the pulp warehouse, the other corner looked a little barren and underwhelming. So I broke out the scenery cart, some random buildings and other doo-dads and went to work. 

The acid store house at the end of the rock and coke track seen in the pulp warehouse photos was an old hand-me-down of a 1960s era kit (AHM?). It was a space filler but didn’t really match anything or even look very good. It had to go.  Looking around the layout, I found an unused sugar factory style building acting as a junkyard office that looked like it would fit. Adding a foundation and a few details perked it right up. Now we have a nice spot for tank cars and box cars of various acids.

The east end of the beet factory featured an office building and some molasses tanks.  A Walthers freight station building made a reasonable General Offices building. A few other random buildings filled in the scene and made it look industrial. The molasses tanks are pieces of PVC tubing with 020” styrene tops and Model Builder printed wrappers.

A close-up of the General Offices.  A nice asphalt driveway with grass and a tree seemed appropriate for the main office and a few cars were scattered around for effect.  Looks like someone with a nice Pontiac is looking for work. The GW sign was found on the Internet and spiffed up a little.

WTF?  Although not in my era, a molasses tank had a valve freeze in Feb 1990 that created a vacuum and broke a tank panel.  Over 500,000 gallons of sticky goo flooded the area and shut down a main street for a couple of weeks. It was too good of a story to pass up modeling it even though it’s “in the future”. 

The tank is more PVC with a Model Builder wrapper. A ¼” section of the PVC was cut off, a top was added to it then glued to top part of the wrapper leaving about 2” in the upper middle unsupported. A piece of twine was wrapped around and pulled tight creating the wrinkles. 

The real thing for reference. http://www.reporterherald.com/news/loveland-local-news/ci_27538585/lovelands-sticky-situation-reaches-25-year-anniversary

Much earlier, Boston had a deadly 2.3 million gallon Molasses Tsunami. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/26/science/boston-molasses-flood-science.html

The completed scenery in front of the wet hopper. The Loveland 0-6-0 #101 is shoving a cut of beet loads into the wet hopper. The coal bin and water hydrant for the dinky is sitting by the yard lead.  A bad omen of the future has appeared. Trucks are being used to haul beets and may put the railroad out of the beet hauling business. And so it came to pass.

Enter the age of trucks.  Early on, farmers brought beets to the factory in their farm wagons. Later on, remote beet dumps were set up closer to the farmers and serviced by the Great Western. Once roads began to be developed in Northern Colorado, larger trucks helped out the railroad. Of course, they were more efficient and took over slowly but surely. Here is the truck beet pit with the flume heading to the factory and the massive water pipe need to generate the required flow. The corrugated metal covers could be moved for access if beets got stuck somewhere.

My source in Colorado mentioned that the truck beet pit was real and had a small version of the wet hopper equipment; a platform and hoses to wash the beets from the trucks. I was just making this up but found out it was true. Cool.

Of course, you need a truck scale to keep everything on the up and up. Those poor farmers need money and they don’t like to give their beets away.

Dump those beets!  In the fall, Loveland was ripe with the “smell of money”.  The factory generated a strange smell when it was running.  Nasty chemicals, burning limestone and coke, rotten beets and stinky molasses all contributed to the smell. But no one complained, at least officially.

An overview of the wet hopper and truck line. The future is in full swing.

Thanks for following the story of the wet hopper and the Loveland sugar beet facility. The Loveland yard is now complete unless I decide to scratch build the mocked up factory buildings. That would be quite a project but I have much else to do.

amazing work. Those molasses

amazing work. Those molasses floods are no joke. In Boston,  Folks still say that on a hot day the neighborhood smells of the stuff.