On the West Side line, I saw loaders in action in Los Banos and Dos Palos; there may have been loaders at places like Mendota and Firebaugh, too (never made it that far south to see).

I moved to Tracy, CA in 1987, and will never forget the first time I saw a train of beet racks ... I had never heard of them, and upon seeing these wooden cars, I felt like I had encountered a brontosaurus, something not of the present day.