OK. It's not N Scale and it's not based on a Michigan railroad, but at least it is a model railroad and I did build it in Michigan. Inspired by a trip on the Durango & Silverton and emboldened by spousal permission to tear up the back yard, the Colorado Eastern was a simple G Scale garden layout. The entire project took about 3 months, starting on Labor Day and ending just after Thanksgiving in 2003. I rented a sod-cutter, excavated a large chunk of turf, sank treated posts and built retaining walls. I brought in a couple tons of fill and a lot of rocks and small boulders. I trenched 110V power in a conduit from the house to the garden area. Track is from AristoCraft and the trains are a D&RGW Bumblebee set from Bachmann. This was a fun project and I learned a lot over the 10+ years I had it in operation. I pulled the tracks and converted the area to an elevated vegetable garden in 2014-2015, as my modeling focus returned to the small inside stuff. Photo story provided below....