If you mean "other types of loads on the prototype", these are very similar to the woodchip conversions in the Northwest. Those usually had higher sides, as the chips are less dense than beets, but maybe your shop crews had to deal with tighter clearances.
Trivia: They grew a lot of sugar beets in Washington in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. The railroads never used "beet racks". The beets were hauled in standard GS gons or ballast hoppers most of the time, and after the BN merger, we saw a lot of CB&Q "War Emergency" 2-bay hoppers with the wood sides. Crews hated those, as they were in very poor condition, and the beets kept falling out the holes in the sides. I've seen broken boards patched with plywood, cardboard, old grain doors (wood and paper), tarps, pieces of hay bale, you name it. The end came when an entire hopper bay fell out of one car between Pasco and Yakima, at about 60 mph, dumping the load of beets, and derailing the train. The entire fleet was white-lined and scrapped.
Dee: Modern bananas don't have seeds. That is one of the reasons growers have such a hard time with disease. They clone the plants, and can't breed new strains. I've heard that the original wild bananas had rather large seeds.
