I lived there when the plant (RMC Lone Star at the time) converted to coal. The conversion to coal vastly cleaned up the emissions - previously it used fuel oil not gas and had no functional emission controls. And the 'conversion' was more like a completely new cement plant from the ground up; you won't find much out there that dates from before the late 1970s. That said, coal is right up there with nukes in terms of badness these days, especially in the Socialist Republic of SC, so anybody wanting to resurrect the place would probably have to figure out a way to run it on solar and windmills (good luck). It *was* amusing when they tried to bring down the old smokestack and had to try several times with the explosives - it just didn't want to drop.

I wish Sierra Northern luck with what's left of the branch absent Cemex. I do think that the economy (and the much lower cost of operating in MX of course) is what shut the cement plant down, and if by some miracle SN (love the initials given that they're running the Woodland Branch) and the County can manage to keep operable tracks to it some future owner will reopen it. Run with gas, of course; once their current permits for coal use expire for lack of exercise, no future air district or county commission will let it restart using that fuel.