D&RG Needleton Oddities

Most of what I thought I knew about Needleton was not up to snuff. Somewhere my mind picked up that it was the flood of 1911 that wiped out the townsite and the D&RG facilities, rather than a flood in 1927. I was looking through 4th Division Timetables over at [www.drgw.net] and realized the 1911 date didn't add up with how Needleton remained at MP 482.3 until 1928 D&RGW Alamosa Division Timetable No. 114 where it's listed at MP 483.8 (Its MP 483.3 for the D&SNG flagstop but whatever)

Going over to 1937 D&RGW Alamosa Division Timetable No. 120, a station named Hunt at 482.6 appears. Better yet, it's listed with a 24 car siding!


1944 D&RGW Alamosa Division Timetable No. 123 also lists Hunt having an absurdly long siding equal to Tacoma at 18 cars:

Hunt as a station stop would remain on timetables up to 1951 it'd seem, without a siding of any kind. Today the area is still known only as Hunt Slide.

Where did this Siding come from, where did it go? I don't mean to be splitting hairs about approximate lengths seeing how much they change, but being .3 of a mile from the original Needletion stop makes me think this could have been the original Needleton siding, but why was that considered as removed by 1928? Going back to earlier timetables, the original Needleton was listed with a 14 car siding at most. Could it have been an extension of the original Needleton siding?

Joe Weigman
from the D&RG City Mine spur