Colombo-Kandy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0PxMcuP8bs" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Should your travels take you to Colombo in Sri Lanka, the 4 hour rail trip to Kandy is wonderful. Get an early start (6AM ish); the trip is beautiful. When you get there, there are the Botanical Gardens, where Mountbatten had his HQ during the latter stages of WWII; all sorts of wonderful plants (especially bamboo, among so many others) can be seen. Also, Kandy abounds in elephants. The trip back can be completed before sunset, if started early enough. I did it twice in the late 80's and early 90's; back then the army guarded the whole line as a defense against the Tamil Tigers insurgency; this was defeated 5 or 6 years ago, so no soldiery seen in the above youtube. Sam

Thank you for giving us a look at Siri Lanka. Another video of a train ride there shows substantial towers, (signal boxes,) which may or may not be in use. It also shows stand pipes at two stations, which seems to indicate that steam isn't long gone.

Correct...on all counts. When I was there, all signaling was semaphore; on at least one of my trips, and I believe both, but not sure, the loco was an old Midland steamer. Also, when I arrived at Kandy, there was an old signalbox in the yard, with a wizened old guy in charge; I asked, and he let me in to look around, I was shocked when he agreed, given the very tight security at the time, soldiers were EVERYWHERE (the only other time that happened was in Scotland; won't say when or where, as that's no way to return a favour). It had all the trappings of a very old British line (which it was). The scenery is breathtaking, and the people are very friendly! Sam

Jaffna Train Yal Devi train Colombo to Jaffna Sri Lanka Railway 2014
Janagan Suntharesan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6hRi2ytymY" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
This is the video that shows signal boxes, standpipes and semaphores, at least one of which is lower quadrant. A lot of color light signals too.
Some of the gents wear dresses. I guess that's common in other parts of Asia as well.

Ssiri Lanka by train. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mzcTS_4wIc" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;