Late to the thread, but when we built the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway back in 2004, we kept it very close to prototypical. We were indeed fortunate to have highly talented members of our group like dmdrake, narrowgauge, and others who managed to create over 2500 separate items for the route including stations, rails, houses, splines, trees, people, vehicles, and everything between to create the Indian ambiance. The whole 54-mile length was recreated using DEM and we like to think it deserves the be called "prototypical". BUT, we did take liberties in some areas. They are not likely to be noticed unless you've seen the videos or actually been there in real life.
Bill
Bill