Thanks so much for the additional information. A friend also
referred me to 'Burlington Bulletin' #10 which had a great deal of
information. Apparently the spurs (branches) were built in the mid-
1920s. By 1930 Great Western Sugar Co. had built a factory in
Wheatland which operated until the latter half of the 1950's when it
was closed as being marginal to the operations of Great Western.
Beet dump sidings on the Ayers (Gibson) spur (branch)were located at
Martin, Falk as well as Natwick. Dumps along the Sibylee spur
(branch) were at Earhart, Wilson and Hightower.
The spurs (branches) were abandoned by the C&S in the late 1970s.
Again, thanks so much for the information which you provided.
Between that and the material from my friend, I now have a pretty
good idea of what the railroad situation was along the spurs
(branches).
> You are correct, the branches were built to serve sugar beet dumps
in the
> irrigated farmland around Wheatland about the time the factory was
built
> (1929). At that time just about all beets were hauled in wagons
so the
> trips had to be short. Since the farms were too far from the
factory to
> make the trip, the trains came to the farms. A similar situation
existed
> around Torrington and the Nebraska panhandle factories, as well as
those in
> Colorado. The sidings were removed sometime in the 80s, I
believe, but I
> don't know the exact date. The Wheatland sugar factory had been
closed for
> years prior to that and the beets would have been probably taken
to Great
> Western factories in Colorado or the Holly Sugar factory in
Torrington. Now
> they are all rehauled (from dump to factory) on trucks. No more
sidings
> every few miles with beet pilers and lines of old broken down 2-bay
> hoppers.sad.
>
>
>
> Richard Patterson
>
> Torrington, WY
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
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