To help shed some light on the somewhat strange trips of Mr. Peterson on the Silverton Branch.
The Crew headed out of Durango with a Work Extra for Needleton Station.
1-The time of the year gives that the snow has just left most of the Canyon, and the annual Spring Cleanup from the Avalanches and the Avalanche caused high water damage.
This work includes cleaning out the drainage ditches, and cross drains, removing large pieces of trees from the side of the tracks so that the trains can pass by safely, the replacement of damaged ties and rails.
2-Several of the Big Slides probably still remain, and may be caving off into the cleared rail slot ( refer Cinders & Smoke--Snow Clearing).
3-The Train Crew on a Work Extra does a large amount of sitting doing nothing, as the Section and Extra Gangs do most of the work.
The Track Crews need transportation from the Outfit Work Train probably parked at Needleton Siding..Elk Park was probably reserved for holding freight trains bound to Silverton, and allowing the Train(s) to Durango to pass.
This will explain why the some of the strange work times, but the hours claimed seem to indicat that they went dead on hours and had a relief crew run the Work Crews down to Needleton, and run the engine up to Silverton for a layover in the Silverton Engine House.
The deadheading from Needleton indicates that a new Crew from Durango Relieved them at Needleton on the 461 Up (Westbound)Train, and they caught the Down (Eastbound) Train to Durango.
3-The Snow Clearing Crew would also probably be based out of Needleton and would require transportation from Needleton to the Snow Shed Slide Area to clear caved off snow.
The Work train would turn on the Elk Park Wye, and back up to the work area so that the locomoti9ve could plow down to Needleton.
4-This is the time period that the Rio Grande was preparing the entire San Juan Extension (Rio Grande Narrow Gauge of the 1960's) for upgrading to allow operation of the existing C-25,K-27', and the future K-28', and the Planned K-36's to replace all othe C-16, 18, 19 2-8-0's on all of the Main Line and Major Branches (Silverton, Farmington, and the Gunnison lines were also getting Upgrades.
The Rail Recods indicate that Rail around Needleton was replaced in 1924, and the Rail from near Needleton to Silvertonm was replaced in 1940.
The possibility exists that the original lighter rail was replaced with more heavier rail from the Standard Gauge Glenwood Canyon Line that was still usable, but worn.
(Rio Grande had a habit of placing worn Main Line Rail on Branches to just get rail down that could support the C-48 SG 2-8-0's and the K-27/28 NG 2-8-2's to reduce the number of Engines and trains required on the Branch lines-I have seen some of this SECOND_HAND Rail that was placed on several branches in Utah in the 1910' and 20's and it is still there. #75 Rail worn down to the capabilities of #52/#45 Rail--Diesels had trouble with it all of the time.)
