Railroads keep copies of ‘Station Maps’ on file and update them as changes are made. Very detailed Sanborn Insurance maps are a good source of town information. Your local Michigan library should be able to access the town maps for you or give you the web userid/password if you have a library card.
Jim
Try www.michiganrailroads.com. This is a great resource and has some of the old railroad maps on file.
On the home page are two rows of tabs, one for current data, one for historical. On the historical tab set pick “maps”. A menu of counties shows up. For each county there is a simple line graph showing towns with current and abandoned railroads. Most towns are “hot spots” you can click on to see photos and sometimes maps.
In other tabs or from the main county menu of maps you can access historical maps as well. This is a great site to get lost in. I like to compare the historical maps to the satellite views in maps.google.com.
George V.
Another great resource would be historical societies and museums.