Haven't seen any drawings, but there are many, many photos of these Carroll Patent Tilting Platform beet unloaders/loaders, widely used in Colorado, Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana and California. Here's a bit of text from the 1903 chapter of my manuscript,
Colorado & Southern: The First 10 Years, describing something of the early history of the Carroll apparatus in northern Colorado:
On April 22 the Fort Collins Weekly Courier first
reported: “Tim Carroll, patentee and inventor of the Carroll load dumping apparatus,
is in the city. He has superintended the
building of all the beet dumps on the C. & S. railway and is now
negotiating with the Fort Collins-Colorado Sugar company with a view of having
the system adopted here.” A subsequent
report appeared in the issue of May 13:
“Tim Carroll is again in the city introducing his patent beet dump,
which is being endorsed by a large number of farmers in this locality.”
Carroll, an Anaheim, California,
beetgrower whose unloading device was covered by U.S. patent No. 561485, issued
June 2, 1896, made similar appearances before officials of the Windsor and
Longmont companies and took his case to the public, paying for editorial space
in local papers. The Courier of May 20 carried his appeal:
THE CARROLL DUMPING APPARATUS
The Best Now in Use
The Carroll Dumping Apparatus dumps beets faster than
they can be weighed. Farmers do not have
to stand in line and wait as by the old method.
The dump is used by the American Beet Sugar Co. for the Chino
and Oxnard factories in California
and their factories in Colorado. It is used by the Cudahy Co. and the California and Hawaii Beet Sugar Co. and all through the
beet region of California. In Colorado
the Carroll Dump has been adopted by the American Beet Sugar Co. at Rocky Ford,
the Great Western Sugar Co. of Loveland, the Eaton Sugar Co. at Ault, and a
number of dumps will be erected at Windsor and Sugar City.
Any factory can save from $40,000.00 to $50,000.00 by
using the Carroll system of beet dumps and bins. Four men, by this system, can unload and feed
the flumes for a 1200 ton factory. We
can prove our assertions to the satisfaction of any competent corps of
engineers. Mr. Carroll has invented and
patented a car unloading device by which two men can unload four cars at a time
in the space of three minutes. Read
carefully the letters below, and remember we can substantiate every claim.
TESTIMONIALS.
MARION,
COLO., May 8, 1903.
This is to certify that I had charge of the beet dump
at the Marion
siding on the Colorado & Southern R.R. for the Great Western Sugar factory,
and find that the Carroll beet dumping device works perfectly. Its capacity is good for one load of beets
per minute. I was dump man there and
unloaded 30 loads of beets in 31 minutes and moved and changed cars in that
time, in the presence of Ed. Spotts, Joe Boyd and Charlie Custer. There were three teams on the dump at the
same time; one going down, one dumping and one coming up the dump. For the safety of wagons and speed in
unloading the Carroll Beet Dumping device cannot be excelled. The farmers say if there was no beet dump
here there would be no beets raised. L.C.
LANDIS.
LONGMONT,
COLO.,
Nov. 20, 1902.
Mr. Tim Carroll.
Dear Sir – In reply to your favor of recent date
regarding your Beet Dumping apparatus, will say I have had charge of one for
the past two years. For simplicity,
durability, rapidity and economy it, in my judgment, cannot be excelled. I have dumped many wagons of five and six
tons net weight. Have never had an
accident after dumping 3,000 wagon loads.
My dump is ready at any moment for loads. Wishing you success with the best Beet Dump
on earth, I am very truly yours,
CHAS. MAYFIELD,
Ex-dump
man, Boettcher Dump, near
Longmont, Colo.
GREELEY,
COLO.,
May 7, 1903.
Mr. Tim Carroll.
Dear Sir: In
regard to the Beet Dump you build, I will say there are none better for dumping
beets, if using the proper wagons. I
have run one for two falls, and can safely say that I can dump wagons faster than
any weighmaster can weigh the loads and make out the tickets. I have dumped loads weighing over 5,000 lbs.
in 10 seconds. I loaded 224 cars last
fall, 1902. I think that any community
raising beets should have one of Mr. Carroll’s Dumps by all means. They will save labor and money to beet
raisers and haulers. I have been in
charge of dump at Farmer’s Spur, on C. & S. R.R., for two years.
CHAS C. NEFF.
GREELEY,
COLO.,
May 7, 1903.
Tim Carroll,
Dear Sir – In regards as to your Beet dump, I can say
it is a perfect satisfaction as I had charge of one at Boyd’s spur last
year. We could dump a load in less than
half a minute. The wagons are light and
handy and make good all purpose wagons.
The farmers have increased the beet acreage nearly half since the dump
was built last year. Respectfully
yours,
R.W.
BOYD.
BERTHOUD,
COLO.,
May 4, 1903.
Mr. Tim Carroll,
Dear Sir – In regard to the beet dump for dumping
wagon loads of beets into cars or other receptacles which you have, I can say
that there is none better or as good as your device, and to any farmer who is
raising beets, rather than being without them, I would insist on the sugar
companies using them or else go without beets.
Mr. G. Austen and myself, who had charge of the dump [at Windsor] in the fall of
1901, dumped a load in 28 seconds from the time it came on to the dump. This was by Prof. Carpenter’s watch who was
on the dump at the time. [Prof. L.G.
Carpenter was then head of the Colorado Agricultural College Agricultural
Experiment Station. He was named state
engineer in 1903.] I hope the farmers
will remember that now is the accepted time to have them put in while business
is new. I wish you every success and
remain yours truly,
H.C.
BRANCH.
TIMNATH,
COLO.,
May 6, 1903.
Mr. Tim Carroll,
Dear Sir – I had charge of your beet dump here last
fall, and would say in regard to its working that I think it would be
impossible to beat it. The farmers could
not afford to grow sugar beets without it.
They can use any kind of a wagon with a flat bottom and can be dumped
faster than they can be weighed. About
one-third of the wagons dumped here were hay racks and I never had any trouble
with them. I am also willing to bet that
I can load a car of 30 tons capacity in 15 minutes, providing the weighmaster
can weigh them. Very
truly yours,
W.S.
DARNELL.
LOVELAND,
COLO.,
May 4, 1903.
Mr. Tim Carroll:
Dear Sir – During the falls of 1901 and 1902 I had
charge of one of your Beet Dumping devices.
I can say that I consider them a success. I never timed the capacity of them, but know
that they are as fast as the scales for weighing the beets. They also allow the farmer to use the
lightest possible beet box, thereby saving many dollars in horseflesh.
U.S. HANKINS,
Weighmaster,
Campion
Dump.
LOVELAND,
COLO.,
Oct. 24, 1901.
To Whom It May Concern:
This is to certify that we are using five of the
Carroll dumps for the unloading of beets out of wagons into cars. I am frank to say that it is certainly one of
the best methods for unloading into cars that I have ever seen. We are able to dump wagons containing from
three to four tons in less than a minute, one man handling the dump; and I
should say that it is very strong and durable and is a great labor-saving
device. Mr. Carroll certainly
understands his business and has made a success of this matter.
MARK AUSTIN,
Agr.
Supt.
Great
Western Sugar Co.
---
Carroll
had no trouble winning over the farmers and beet haulers, and they endorsed his
apparatus at a meeting of all growers in the northern Colorado
region, held at the Larimer County courthouse in Fort Collins on Saturday, May 30. But Carroll did not have such an easy time
when it came to convincing the factories to employ his “improved” apparatus
(patent No. 595236 of December 7, 1897) for unloading the beets from wagons or
railcars at the factories. His apparatus
was considerably more expensive than the simple dumps they planned to use, and
he made unsuccessful attempts to win them over with ads in the local papers,
such as this from the Fort Collins Weekly
Courier of May 27:
To the Fort Collins Sugar Company.
Now is the time for you to make a success of the
factory. You can construct the beet bins
and put in the latest modern machinery so that four men can unload from wagons
1,200 tons of beets per day and feed the flumes. In the construction of these bins you can
save $30,000 to $40,000 by putting in the Carroll automatic dump. At your different shipping points you can
unload 1,000 tons per day from each dump.
The season here is short and if the beets are frozen in the ground you
will be in trouble with the farmers and once you lose their confidence you will
never regain it and the factory will be a failure.
TIM CARROLL.
---
With
the Fort Collins and Windsor factories in the fold, Carroll went after the
Longmont factory, and the Longmont Ledger
of June 26 explained, “Tim Carroll,
lately of California, but now of the Vulcan Iron Works, Denver, is the inventor
and manufacturer of the Carroll Beet Dump and has made dumps for Fort Collins,
Windsor, Sugar City, Loveland and Rocky Ford and hopes to do the same for
Longmont.” During this foray into
northern Colorado, Carroll was living in Denver and had aligned
himself with the Vulcan Iron Works to produce the mechanical parts for his
dumping apparatus.
By August the sugar companies
began to install Carroll’s trestle dumping apparatus at locations that would
serve the new factories, and reports began appearing in the Fort Collins Weekly Courier:
August
5 – “A beet dump is being put in at the
Glover ranch two miles northeast of [Fort
Collins] and it will be known as the Glover switch.”
August 12 – “The sugar company
will erect a Carroll beet dump on the James Cuthbertson place north of the
Manor Stock farm, for the accommodation of the Harmony beet growers.
“Lumber for the beet dumps at
McClelland’s, Drake’s and Laporte has been received at all those places and
contractors are at work putting up the dumps.”
August 28 – “Work is progressing
on the 4 beet dumps [for the Longmont factory],
one each at Hygiene, Niwot,
Idaho Creek and Chapman’s.” [Of the four, only the one at Niwot was on
the C&S; the other three were on the Burlington’s
Lyons Branch.]
On September 7 a report on all
the dumps for the Fort Collins
factory appeared in the Courier:
Ten Carroll Beet Dumps Are Being Built.
The Fort Collins-Colorado Sugar company is building
ten Carroll beet dumps along the line of the C. & S. road in this district
for the convenience of farmers engaged in raising beets for the local sugar
factory. These dumps are located as
follows: One at McClelland’s spur, one
on W.A. Drake’s farm, one of the Jas Cuthbertson farm, adjoining the Manor
Stock farm, one at Timnath, one at Laporte, one near Jacob Armstrong’s farm on
the Stout branch, one at Wellington, one on T.H. Robertson’s farm, one at the
Alford and the Amos farms, and one at Frank Breniman’s. The dumps at McClelland’s and Drake’s are
practically completed and work is being prosecuted on all of them.
A careful estimate of the number of tons of beets
that will be loaded on the cars at each of these dumps has been made, as
follows:
Trilby………………………………………..1,500
tons
McClelland’s………………………………..6,200
tons
Drake’s……………………………………...8,700
tons
Cuthbertson’s………………………………..6,100
tons
Timnath……………………………………...3,200
tons
Bellvue………………………………………1,500
tons
Laporte………………………………………4,800
tons
Armstrong’s…………………………………7,000
tons
Wellington…………………………………..8,700 tons
Robertson’s…………………………………8,900
tons
Alford-Amos………………………………..6,800
tons
Breniman’s………………………………….5,500
tons
Sugar factory……………………………….15,000
tons
Total……………………………...83,900 tons
---
Further
accounts appeared as dump construction progressed:
September
9 – “The beet dump between Fort Collins
and Laporte is located at the railway crossing on the road leading north from
W.D. Taft’s, on land donated for the purpose by Mr. C.N. Glover.”
September 30 – “The carpenters
are at work putting up the [Bellvue ] beet dump. They have the scale house done and the scales
in place. Looks as if there was business
ahead for Bellvue this fall.”
October
16 – “Tim Carroll says there are fifty of his beet dumps in the state, of which
twenty-five have been put up this year.
Four are near Longmont. Eight gangs are at work putting up the dumps.” [Another for the Longmont
factory had been located between Longmont and Highland, at a new siding named Morey in honor of C.S.
Morey, president of the Longmont, Greeley, and soon Fort
Collins sugar companies.]
October
28 – “A beet dump is now being built here [Laporte].
November 11 – “The [Laporte] beet dump was completed
Saturday and was put to use Monday morning.
All the farmers pronounce it a great help. Mr. Langford of this place has charge of it.”
Undoubtedly more than you wanted to know, but these trestles for unloading wagons or trucks into railcars have always fascinated me.
Hol
To: CBQ@yahoogroups.com
From: CBQ@yahoogroups.com
Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2015 12:57:13 -0800
Subject: Re: FW: [CBQ] Re: Seasonal Use Of Gondolas On The Q
Wouldn't that make a neat model! Are there any drawings or were plans ever published for one of these?
Jonathan
---In CBQ@yahoogroups.com, <holpennywagner@...> wrote :
Here's the Scottsbluff beet dump after completion.
Hol
__._,_.___
Posted by: Hol Wagner <holpennywagner@msn.com>
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