Broad gauge rolling stock appropriate for Sri Lankan railways

[martinvk]

Haven't found any specific rolling stock when searching using Sri Lanka so I ask, what existing broad gauge rolling stock available in the DLS would be most appropriate to use on a Sri Lankan railway?
Several years ago I had an opportunity to visit Sri Lanka and so decided to have a go in modelling some parts of that visit. With TransDEM, the landscape and most items can be placed but it's rather empty without any rolling stock to drive around in it. I changed one of my procedural tracks to broad gauge but don't have anything to use on it. And standard gauge stuff looks kind of funny driving between the rails.

 

[pware]

By broad gauge I am assuming that you mean 5ft 3inches (1600mm) - these gauge terms can be confusing.

One prolific creator of 5ft 3inch rolling stock on the DLS is s301 (a.k.a ZecMurphy)

 

[martinvk]

Actually slightly wider at 1676 mm (5 ft 6 in)
IRL it would make a difference but you'd have to look pretty close to see the difference in Trainz.

 

[JCitron]

Would Indian rolling stock and locomotives work? I assume they also used Brunell's gauge for their railways.

 

[martinvk]

Duh, the obvious next door answer! Now to start browsing among those

 

[pware]

According to Wikipedia

Broad gauge of 1,676 mm (5 ft 6 in), commonly known as Indian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Argentina, Chile, and on BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) in the San Francisco Bay Area. This is the widest gauge in common use anywhere in the world.

The use of this gauge by the BART system in SF does puzzle me.

 

[Frank_Dean]

On the Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern Europe, two countries use a track gauge very similar to that of India: Spain and Portugal.

Indian Gauge: 1676 mm
Iberian Gauge (Spain and Portugal): 1668 mm

With a difference of only 8 mm, it allows for rolling stock compatibility.
In recent years, Chile and Argentina have acquired secondhand Spanish and Portuguese Iberian gauge rolling stock.

 

[martinvk]

Had a cursory look at some of those BG countries and ran into 2 issues

1. Too many searches for India returned Indiana, not a BG area
2. When I did find routes for those BG countries, often they used regular standard gauge track and thus standard gauge rolling stock.

I can understand why. Easier to use all what is available rather than limiting the selection. Since I already went to the effort to make some 1676 mm track, I might have to do what they do at the France - Spain border, change the bogies on a few selected pieces of rolling stock , just to make things look OK. So besides the fact that the route is too big make a CDP, none of the locally modified rolling stock will be shareable . Thus it will be a personal route effort for its own sake.