When the Central Branch Union Pacific Railroad was brought into the area, Downs was plotted by the rairoad around 1879 at the Y junction where the railroad tracks split with one branch going Southwest the other Northwest. With the the railroad running eighteen trains daily; Downs sprang up almost overnight. Although several freight trains operated by the Kyle Railroad of Phillipsburg still run through Downs weekly; Little remains to remind newcomers that Downs was for many years a bustling rail center and division point. The roundhouse is gone and the steamers have whistled their last shrill blast, gone from the trackside is the water tower, as are the sidings, the loading docks, the coal supply and other necessities of this division point of the rairoad. Downs is a modern town catering to the needs of the surrounding agricultural area where there are fields of wheat, milo, sorghum, alfalfa and corn.