AI-generated (not entirely realistic) railway images

[contrex]

(JUST A BIT OF FUN) I have had a Google Gemini free-tier account for some while, and got a message inviting me to try out its image creation tool. I asked it to 'create an image of a British Southern Railway electric train'. I think I kind of hoped for a 2-NOL in a weird, 'uncanny valley' setting but this is just mad. I think AI still has some way to go. A raised panto, but no wires, and Diesel smoke??? And a kettle slyly peeping from the left?

 

[frankmoh]

I wonder how AI would fare with being asked for a Networker. Especially given how the 3 4 versions of it don't look like each other anymore. It would probably be grotesque.

Chiltern 165

First Great Western (old livery) 166

Scotrail 365 (with happy face)

Southeastern 465

 

[signed]

I wonder how AI would fare with being asked for a Networker. Especially given how the 3 4 versions of it don't look like each other anymore. It would probably be grotesque.

First he generated me a network closet, then this is... something. Looks like a 15x meld of something

Please generate an image of a Networker Diesel Multiple Unit, not a network closet

Using Gemini 2.5 Flash

 

[frankmoh]

First he generated me a This is... something. Looks like a 15x something

Using Gemini 2.5 Flash

Maybe the 658 is the mystical BEMU conversion of the 158.

Did it generate anything more Networker-y? Maybe try "British Southeastern electric train"

 

[signed]

Did it generate anything more Networker-y? Maybe try "British Southeastern electric train"

 

[frankmoh]

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The windows and doors look shockingly similar. Everything else does not. Hopefully this sets Skynet back a few days.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Loving the chap on the left hand train who is sticking his head through a plate glass window!

 

[8ace]

I like the window hangers

 

[Sun Chariot]

Nice ones, @signed
And, look, fully opening droplights in the passenger saloon!

 

[signed]

Generate me a Class 43 HST set, ideally in green GWR livery image

Generate me the most tatty Class 142 Pacer image

Feel free to suggest prompts (I have Gemini Pro) I might the more interesting some later

 

[contrex]

Loving the chap on the left hand train who is sticking his head through a plate glass window!

My wife says he looks like José Garcia, the French (Spanish parents) film star. There is something very weird looking out of the right hand train, just behind the cab.

 

[Sun Chariot]

Feel free to suggest prompts (I have Gemini Pro) I might the more interesting some later

Network Southeast train crammed with hot angry passengers

 

[MarkyT]

(JUST A BIT OF FUN) I have had a Google Gemini free-tier account for some while, and got a message inviting me to try out its image creation tool. I asked it to 'create an image of a British Southern Railway electric train'. I think I kind of hoped for a 2-NOL in a weird, 'uncanny valley' setting but this is just mad. I think AI still has some way to go. A raised panto, but no wires, and Diesel smoke??? And a kettle slyly peeping from the left?

View attachment 183527

I like the livery. Similar to LNER tourist stock colours. Double swing doors are interesting. Maybe a measure for faster boarding!

Edit: Front bogie is weird, despite at first glance looking fairly good. Appears to have a third set of springs and a journal box for another axle, but there's no corresponding wheel visible below.

 

[Tetchytyke]

There is something very weird looking out of the right hand train, just behind the cab.

I think that's Liam Gallagher.

 

[ThirteenArches]

I asked for a Peckett 2-6-4T

 

[MarkyT]

I asked for a Peckett 2-6-4T

I think the AI has completely misunderstood and mixed up continental-style UIC wheel config. notation based on no. of axles in each group and no. of wheels as used in Whyte notation. A pacific in UIC is a 2-C-1, or 4-6-2 in Whyte for example. The illustration should be a 2-6-6-4 or 1-C-C-2. I'm assuming inside cylinders and the driving wheels divided into two separately coupled groups. It's ugly as hell and why so many domes?

 

[bleeder4]

It generally takes 3 or 4 subsequent prompts to get something workable. You have to keep getting it to refine the image. "Now remove this", "change this", "add this" etc.

What worries me is that at some point we will reach a critical mass where there will be more AI content than human content. So people in the future will genuinely believe that's what our trains looked like.

 

[zwk500]

View attachment 183538

AI obviously found the perfect photo in a search and just fudged the number!

 

[Brubulus]

I wonder how AI would fare with being asked for a Networker. Especially given how the 3 4 versions of it don't look like each other anymore. It would probably be grotesque.

Chiltern 165

First Great Western (old livery) 166

Scotrail 365 (with happy face)

Southeastern 465

I asked ChatGPT for a networker with a nice prompt "Create an image of a Networker train. Class 165, 166, 365, 465 and 466 are all Networker trains." It did an almost perfect job in my opinion.

 

[Sun Chariot]

I asked ChatGPT for a networker with a nice prompt "Create an image of a Networker train. Class 165, 166, 365, 465 and 466 are all Networker trains." It did an almost perfect job in my opinion.

That is remarkable.
How about Create an image of a fumes belching class 104 DMU

 

[zwk500]

I asked ChatGPT for a networker with a nice prompt "Create an image of a Networker train. Class 165, 166, 365, 465 and 466 are all Networker trains." It did an almost perfect job in my opinion.

I expect if you google image search 'Class 165' you'll find a lot of the components of that image. It seems to lean particularly heavy on these two, both in the first page of results:

Although I think that stepping gap may not quite be regulation!

 

[8ace]

That is remarkable.
How about Create an image of a fumes belching class 104 DMU

 

[D1511]

If they had thrashed like that I might have recorded them in my moves books!

 

[MarkyT]

Although I think that stepping gap may not quite be regulation!

That platform is either set back by an extra ~500mm at normal UK height, or perhaps built to the TSI 550mm standard!

 

[D6130]

View attachment 183531View attachment 183532

That second photo has both third rail and overhead electrification.

View attachment 183535

View attachment 183538

Feel free to suggest prompts (I have Gemini Pro) I might the more interesting some later

Apart from the buffers, that's a pretty good representation of a GWR HST.

View attachment 183562

That's an excellent representation of a class 108 DMU....apart from the fact that the fumes are coming out from the wrong place (about halfway along the side of the car!).

 

[Sun Chariot]

That's an excellent representation of a class 108 DMU....apart from the fact that the fumes are coming out from the wrong place (about halfway along the side of the car!).

I presume there's a healthy wood burning stove, offering an at-seat service of wood fired pizza.

 

[contrex]

Apart from the buffers, that's a pretty good representation of a GWR HST.

Take a look at the windows of the trailers.

 

[D6130]

Take a look at the windows of the trailers.

Borrowed from a 334?

 

[Royston Vasey]

The way AI renders corridor ends and WIPAC light clusters always looks like Irish stock to me.

 

[signed]

At the end of the day, what the AI will generate is what it was trained on, which is why the HST looks a lot more convincing (I do like that livery though) because of more training corpus