N Scale Sugar Beets - What Color Paint?

[nkalanaga]

NP1969:  Thank you.  No, as far as I know, all of the Washington beets were processed in Washington.  Like you said, the shipping costs would be prohibitive if they had to be hauled long distances.  Like wood chips, the beets themselves are a relatively low value cargo.

I don't think I'd been to Missoula yet in 1963, and if I had, I was too young to remember anything...

[np1969]

I just wanted to follow up by relating my conversation with Dick of Fine N Scale last night. He suggested using box car red, with a thin wash of black over it. He couldn't remember where he saw the photos he used for reference, but he said they looked like sweet potatoes.

I've also looked at photos using Bing's image search and found a few photos where cleaned beets were more yellow than red, but fresh dug sugar beets were on the reddish side with dirt.

I don't think I'd been to Missoula yet in 1963, and if I had, I was too young to remember anything...

I was four, and doubt I knew what Montana was. 

[nkalanaga]

No, the clean ones in Washington weren't red either, and the dirt (mostly sand) is gray, so they certainly didn't look like sweet potatoes there.  But you makw a good point, as have others, that the color as shipped would be mostly the local dirt.