The Southern Minnesota Sugar Cooperative at Ruebel, a spot just east of Renville named by the railroad after the farmer who once owned the land, receives inbound shipments of coal for its boilers and lime rock for the processing and filtration of beet sugar. Trains run as far west as Ruebel six days a week. The railroad also loads edible beans from facilities in Bird Island, Olivia and Appleton for shipment to East Coast canning companies. In recent years, its fleet has increased from about 230 cars to more than 600 owned or leased cars. About 510 are covered hoppers for grain shipments.
Slugs are units without engines that get power to their wheels from locomotives they are mated to.
If we go to Georgia, it can be a month before we see it back. Generally, a block of 25 cars moves better than individual cars. The railroad tries to meet all requests, but sometimes cars are just not available from its connections. Sometimes it is hard to judge how many cars you are going to need. How far they are going definitely makes a difference on when you'll get cars back.