Sugar Beets
Before 1900, farmers in the St. Vrain Valley grew mostly wheat and other cereals. In the 1890s, a tariff on imported sugar led people to invest in U.S. sugar production. The sugar beet, from which refined granulated sugar can be produced, has a 2-pound white root that grows just underground and thrives in north-central Colorado. In 1901, the Great Western Sugar Company (GWS Co.) opened in Loveland, Colorado to provide a reliable market for regional farmers and to employ hundreds of local residents in labor-intensive sugar beet growing and processing. In its first 70 days, the Loveland sugar factory processed 42,000 tons of beets. Encouraged by this early success, investors competed to buy or lease the best agricultural land and constructed other sugar factories in Eaton, Greeley, Longmont, Fort Collins, Windsor, Sterling, Fort Morgan, and Brush between 1902 and 1904. Denver business owner Chester S. Morey organized the Longmont Beet Sugar Company in 1902, and its sugar factory was constructed on Longmont’s east side in 1903. That and the other independent factories were consolidated into the GWS Co. on January 12, 1905. Over the decades, the sugar beet industry employed local farmers; German-Russian, Japanese, and Latino immigrants; and even Japanese internees and German prisoners of war. All contributed to north-central Colorado’s ethnic diversity.
Black and white photo of farmer with a hoe in front and two other people standing in a field of beets being irrigated. A windmill and farm buildings are in the background. (Photo B.059.057 from the Longmont Public Library)
Railway Origins
Before 1900, farmers transported sugar beets and other crops in horse-drawn wagons, which were relatively small, slow, and got stuck on muddy and snowy dirt roads. After 1900, the exploding sugar beet industry needed faster, larger, and more reliable transportation. The Great Western Railway (GWR) was built between 1902 and 1907 to serve the GWS Co. The GWR mostly transported freshly harvested sugar beets from farms to storage dumps and factories. It also transported materials needed to run the factories, including limestone, fuel coke, and coal. The GWR then hauled refined sugar and beet byproducts, including beet pulp and molasses, to larger railroads and distribution centers. The GWR always had a close relationship with the Colorado & Southern Railway (C&S), which provided and/or built track, locomotives, rolling stock, and other equipment for the young GWR. The C&S also helped connect the GWR to much larger railroads such as the Union Pacific (UP) for long-distance transport of finished products.
Black and white glossy print mounted on cardboard. Sugar factory with large piles of sugar beets. Filled cars in foreground. (Photo 1973.109.336 from the Longmont Public Library)
Railway Engineering
Chief engineer J. F. Frankenberger (who had already designed the treacherous Switzerland Trail railroad that ran up Four Mile Canyon above Boulder, Colorado) designed the first 15.7-mile-long segment of the standard-gauge GWR. Long-term goals for the GWR were to send it through the richest agricultural land, create many locations for farmers to drop off beets no more than 3 miles from their farms, support the construction of new sugar factories, and connect to major regional railroads. Keeping the GWR on a gentle grade was also important since sugar beets are heavy. These goals influenced all stages of the GWR’s construction. The low and wet river valleys through which the GWR ran required special railroad engineering. Workers built artificial berms so that tracks could run above wet areas and bridges so the railroad could cross creeks and irrigation ditches.
Railway Route
The GWR’s first segment was meant to create a J-shaped loop from Loveland to Johnstown to Berthoud, with small stations in-between. This loop followed the Big and Little Thompson River valleys, which provided over 5,000 acres of the most fertile land for growing sugar beets. The loop design allowed for many more small sugar beet receiving stations than a straight-line route would have, and connected the GWR to the UP near Johnstown. The easy access to receiving stations encouraged local farmers to grow sugar beets. By 1903, workers completed a line that ran east from Loveland to Officer Junction (named for the director of the railroad) then curved southeast to Johnstown, then west past the Buda beet dump. The line ended at the Welty beet dump and never made it to Berthoud. In 1905, track was constructed between Windsor and Eaton to connect with new sugar factories and the C&S and UP railroads. More track was built from Johnstown south to Liberty Hall. In 1906, additional tracks were laid to the Longmont GWS Co. factory. In 1907, track was built to connect Officer Junction with Windsor. By January 18, 1908, the GWR consisted of about 58 miles of track that ran from Eaton to Longmont through Windsor, Loveland, and Johnstown, with short secondary lines to Welty and Milliken. The GWR continued to expand to a maximum of 110 miles by 1920, mostly through purchases of other railroads’ tracks, but then shrank back to 63 miles by the 1970s.
Changes Over Time
Sugar beet transport and processing required special industrial equipment. The first beet gondolas (transport cars) were made of wood, with sides just 3 feet tall. To carry more beets, workers added boards to the gondolas’ sides. Much later, in 1949, the GWR began to replace the wooden gondolas with steel bottom-dump gondolas.
The GWR also needed locations for dumping, storing, and cleaning huge numbers of sugar beets before they were processed. The Loveland sugar beet factory’s wooden storage sheds enclosed 250,000 square feet accessed by six parallel train tracks. Men shoveled beets out of train cars onto boards above flumes. Hot water running through the flumes washed and carried the beets into the factory for processing. Over time, design changes increased the efficiency of beet processing. Railroad tracks were constructed high above the ground, train cars were built with side or bottom releases, and jets of boiling water emptied beet cars. These changes reduced the time and cost of human labor.
Unloading sugar beets from a wagon to a beet gondola. (Photo 1973.109.076 from the Longmont Public Library)
Steam locomotives pulled GWR beet gondolas and passenger cars for nearly 50 years. Then, in 1951, the railroad bought some diesel-electric locomotives to replace some of the aging steam locomotives. The GWR used both kinds of locomotives until 1963, when it sold its last steam locomotives.
Industries Served
The GWR was built to serve the sugar beet industry. Yet, communities along its route also benefited. Sugar companies gave beet farmers a steady market, provided hundreds of year-round factory jobs, and boosted local economies through capital, wages, and commerce. More farmers and investors moved to the area and developed extensive irrigation systems and new agricultural practices and technologies that were also useful for other crops. At times the GWR transported mail, passengers, and materials for producing condensed milk, fertilizer, and other agricultural items. These services and industries helped small, formerly isolated communities connect, grow and thrive.
Passenger Service
Most short agricultural railroads did not transport passengers, but the GWR did so from its beginning using mixed trains. In the GWR’s early years, passengers rode at the end of the train in the refurbished 1880s-era combine coach No. 100 (now in the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden) along with express, baggage, and mail. That was a bumpy, slow, and unpredictable ride as the GWR ran through beet fields and stopped at factories, dumps, and settlements along the way. Still, many people depended completely on the GWR for transportation because of the area’s poor roads. In 1913, a total of 8,732 passengers rode this way. In 1917, the GWR purchased two McKeen motor cars that greatly improved comfort, speed, and predictability. Up to 70 people at a time could ride the train at up to 60 mph across virtually the entire GWR network six days a week. At the same time, the conductor delivered newspapers to farms by throwing the papers out the window of the train. One farm family even trained its dog to retrieve the paper from the train car! Passenger service peaked in 1919, when almost 15,000 people paid to ride. However, the increasing popularity of automobiles and road paving led to rapidly decreasing GWR ridership. As a result, the GWR sold both McKeen passenger cars in 1927. From 1928 on, only a few hundred people (mostly teachers and school children) rode a caboose on an as-needed basis similar to how the GWR began its passenger service. GWR passenger service officially ended on April 25, 1972.
Abandonment
Important short sections of the GWR were abandoned in 1937 and 1947, with the latter due to flooding and washouts. Then an entire branch was abandoned in 1970 due to decreasing sugar beet shipments. As the 1970s progressed, several factors led to the marked decline of sugar beet production and the virtual abandonment of the GWR. Outbreaks of crop diseases and pests, high production costs, economic inflation, a discontinuation of government support, and a low value of sugar led to the importation of inexpensive foreign sugar. In addition, semi-trailer trucks replaced railroad cars for transporting beets. By the late 1970s, cane sugar and corn sweeteners were rapidly replacing beet sugar as industrial sweeteners.
Against this backdrop, the Longmont GWS Co. factory closed in 1977 and almost all of the GWR’s beet gondolas were taken out of service, then sold for scrap in 1979. The GWS Co. sold the GWR in 1978 but got it back after some alleged corruption and missed payments by the purchaser. In the early 1980s, the GWR earned some money by storing hundreds of unused freight cars for other railroads on some of its little-used side tracks. The GWR also transported some railfans on short tourist excursions, sometimes pulled by the refurbished No. 51 steam locomotive. The GWS Co. filed for bankruptcy in 1985. At that time, all but two of the GWR cars were scrapped. Denver businessman Pat Broe purchased the GWR in 1986, then formed OmniTRAX in 1993. The GWR became the first of many short-line railroads across the U.S. to be operated by OmniTRAX. The modern-day version of the GWR transports agricultural products, paper, plastics, sand, forest products, brewing grains, beer, and miscellaneous by-products.
Legacy
Many segments of the original GWR remain in use today, including most of the GWR’s Longmont-area track. In addition, two of the GWR’s former steam locomotives became stars in movies and television. Among many appearances, No. 75 was featured in the movies The Frisco Kid and A River Runs Through It, while No. 51 starred in the movie Seabiscuit. Despite some major fires, accidents, and persistent challenges from snowstorms, the GWR serviced north-central Colorado’s vital sugar beet industry for more than 70 years. This little agricultural railroad helped develop and connect industries and communities in the St. Vrain and encompassing Big and Little Thompson River Valleys, forever changing the region’s landscape and people.
