1991 Terraserver images.

Just east of town was a large limestone quarry which daily produced trainloads of rock and lime.

The limestone plant was first a limestone kiln around 1900. Solvay Process Company operated it at the beginning of the 20th century. Before WW2, Concrete Materials Co. leased it and operated as a gravel pit. Then Martin Marietta bought Concrete Materials Co. Martin Marietta operated it in the early 70s. It closed down in 2001, but has been reopened by Kansas Quality Stone. They supply all the ballast for the South Kansas & Oklahoma Railroad.

A rock train switched the quarry every morning (40s - 50s) and later took a heavy string to Winfield for forwarding to the west and north and south. Fireman Roscoe Morton reported that the crusher produced on average 50 cars a day. The vast majority were gondolas or air-dump company cars. The entire rail operation was built on a slight incline. The engine would spot the empties on an upward grade and brakes would be set. As the cars were loaded, they would roll by gravity through the loading units. The crusher never had a switcher of their own, but used dump trucks to pull cars around as needed with cables or chains.

Rod Riley reported concerning the 1970s, that the major work for crews on the Howard Branch was the Martin Marietta limestone quarry. The crusher would not work below 32 degrees resulting in dead times in the winter and overtime work in the summers. The most cars pulled in one day in the early '70s was 99 gondolas. The engine could not cross the scaletrack at crusher, therefore idler cars were used to spot cars on the opposite side from the engine. These were usually 7 old bulkhead flats (1970s). They always stayed with the engine and returned to Moline after switching. A couple of old stock cars also were stored at the quarry to hold plywood and supplies for repairing the composite gondolas when holes appeared in the sides. Empty gondolas often went south (west) on the branch from Emporia to the quarry, however full (revenue) cars primarily did not return on the branch. The full cars were blocked in Moline for forwarding to Wichita, Winfield, Medicine Lodge, and Newton. When they did go on the branch, 13-14 gondolas was all one GP could handle.

Many gondolas of limestone were shipped out to be used in agriculture and construction. Most cars used at crusher were ATSF. This is an excellent place for those war emergency gondolas (Tichy) and Caswell gondolas (Westerfield). However in one shortage during the '70s, C&O coal hoppers were brought in. At another time, MKT side dump hoppers were secured to keep up with demand.

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