Colorado...er...Michigan Narrow Gauge. At first glance, this looks like it could be a scene from one of the D&RGW legacy lines such as the Cumbres & Toltec or the Durango & Silverton....except the environs don't look like Colorado and the C&TS doesn't have passenger coaches like these. Yes, this is a (mostly) original D&RGW passenger train operating on Michigan's Huckleberry Railroad, just under 1,300 miles from home rails.
The power here is D&RGW K-27 "Mudhen" #464, one of just two surviving members of a class that originally numbered 15 engines. The 464 here was the last one built. Built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1903, these engines were originally 4-cylinder, Vauclain, Compound Locomotives, although that arrangement was later changed to a more conventional, 2 cylinder design. The 464 survived the D&RGW era and languished in the Durango yard until it was sold to the Knotts Berry Farm amusement park in California in 1973. She didn't last long there because her inside frame design, with external counterweights didn't have enough clearances on the park's track. She was then sold to the Huckleberry Railroad (aka "The Huck"), outside Flint, Michigan in 1981, where she's been ever since. Obviously well-cared-for, this engine has been the line's primary power for the last 10 years, although her days until her next 1,472 SDI are numbered. She will run a limited schedule in 2019 and probably come down for the boiler inspection after that.
According to the Huck's Master Mechanic, the coaches you see on this line are largely historic D&RG coaches that date back to the 1880s. The exception is the combine that you see directly behind the 464 in this photo. That is a replica that was built by the Huck, which has a lift in the baggage area to permit the carriage of folks with disabilities.
