Bagasse Gons:
While the SP on the west coast was well known for shipping sugar beets, the T&NO was known for servicing sugar mills which used sugar cane to produce sugar and molasses. The by product of grinding cane to produce sugar is a bulky, fiberous substance known as bagasse. In some places, it is used to fire the boilers of the mills. If not, it is usually piled up along side the mill. It was hauled by rail to places that would press it into a fiber board commercially known as Celotex. One such location was in Westwego, LA along both the T&NO and T&P rails.
The T&NO used a variety of rolling stock to transport the bagasse, using deroofed wooden box cars, open gondolas and finally, gondolas with steel side extensions.
Cars known to be used in bagasse service: SP 357000-357041 G-50-8 SP 357100-357199 SP 357200-357264