AI-generated (not entirely realistic) railway images

[Northumbriana]

So the Glenfinnan viaduct….

Looks like it's Magleving across it.

 

[150249]

Frosty morning, a DMU passing an HST on a stone viaduct. I mean, what could possibly go wrong?

I like how that 2nd unit just isn't on the tracks at all!

It looks like AI is incredible at recreating Black 5s. There have been some stunning photos on here.

 

[MarkyT]

I like how that 2nd unit just isn't on the tracks at all!

It looks like AI is incredible at recreating Black 5s. There have been some stunning photos on here.

Probably due to the vast quantity of real photos of the class online. A large class, many surviving until the end of regular steam and now well represented in preservation.

 

[Sun Chariot]

It looks like AI is incredible at recreating Black 5s. There have been some stunning photos on here.

Class 66s get rendered very close to "real". 37s too (although they usually render with an extra bodyside grill and 2 to 3 too many bodyside windows). 47s can (sometimes) look spot-on at the cabs but the bodyside keeps "growing" grilles.
The thread Show Off Your Realistic AI Railway Images! has AI images which look more realistic than images on this thread.

 

[MarkyT]

By way of example, the attached 4 images each required me to describe every part of the image in detail. The AI result got the ambience spot on but the accuracy is still not quite there for the "railway bits."

Love the signal box. The instrumentation behind the lever frame looks appropriately antique but is strange in configuration, at least to British eyes. With so few indicators I would expect the track diagram to convey most of the equipment states through coloured lights.

I asked Grok for some signal box images: Some long prompts precisely describing the lever frame, catch handles etc. In one attempt I used the phrase brass instruments, meaning instrumentation so Grok faithfully placed some brass horns in the image, perhaps an early form of sound signalling where a silly but not tragic shunting mishap in the yard might be accompanied by sad trombone...







Came off in my hand, honest guvner.

 

[eastwestdivide]

Royston Vasey Junction. Change for the Uncanny Valley line.
Did you specifically ask for a grizzled beard!

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Did you specifically ask for a grizzled beard!

I think the AI has modelled that on Captain E.J. Smith of the Titanic...

 

[MarkyT]

Royston Vasey Junction. Change for the Uncanny Valley line.

I assume that's a local service.

Did you specifically ask for a grizzled beard!

I think I asked for an old bearded operator.

 

[Sun Chariot]

Those signal box interiors are superb @MarkyT and it proves the benefit of adapting keywords in the description. Excellent stuff!
I love the "alternate" versions too.

 

[Ashley Hill]

I wouldn’t like to design the locking for those frames though.

 

[MarkyT]

I wouldn’t like to design the locking for those frames though.

I like this one best. Simple, almost a plausible lever colour arrangement with many out-of-use white ones and diagram out of shot to avoid confusion. The bobby's just been handed the single line staff for the branch by the fireman about to leave the box.

The diagrams in the others are somewhat impenetrable and seem to cover a far larger area than possible with the number of levers available. Some of the frames have many yellow distant levers midframe or implausible quantities of blue FPLs!

 

[eastwestdivide]

Pity the lever ends are all different, and pointing in slightly different directions

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 26 Jul 2025 ==

I assume that's a local service.

Very good!

 

[Sun Chariot]

What if Europe's Ligne A Grande Vitesse rail network actually extended to Antarctica? Would we then see TGV Antarctique trains speeding through tunnels of ice?

 

[AndrewE]

I liked the railmotor in the background of the 4th pic in post #150... glad I'm not relying on the wheels staying on the rails though!

 

[Topological]

What if Europe's Ligne A Grande Vitesse rail network actually extended to Antarctica? Would we then see TGV Antarctique trains speeding through tunnels of ice?

Another case of random additional OHLE equipment. This time the foreground arm.

No penguins clinging to the outside of the train.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

A couple of curious contraptions while trying to create realistic images for my thread. Answers on a postcard, please!

I do rather like that Baby Deltic-based DBSO in the first of those final two images. Just a shame it developed a fault and the loco had to run round!

Actually on closer inspection, there's no guard's van in there so it'd be a DTSO. Possibly a generator for ETS behind the cab though. DGSO?

 

[Sun Chariot]

I like this one best. Simple, almost a plausible lever colour arrangement with many out-of-use white ones and diagram out of shot to avoid confusion. The bobby's just been handed the single line staff for the branch by the fireman about to leave the box.

The diagrams in the others are somewhat impenetrable and seem to cover a far larger area than possible with the number of levers available. Some of the frames have many yellow distant levers midframe or implausible quantities of blue FPLs!

Hello @MarkyT do feel free to post this gorgeously evocative image onto the thread linked below. It's absolutely deserving of it!

Show off your realistic AI railway images!

I have started this thread after becoming rather too addicted (so my wife says...) to the capabilities of AI and Big Data. There are several AI image generators. I use Google Gemini. These images are created using my own descriptions into AI. Add your realistic AI generated railway themed...

www.railforums.co.uk

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 26 Jul 2025 ==

Ask Gemini for a railway yard at night, with a Colas class 56 and two Colas class 70s. Can't be hard, right? Right?

 

[MarkyT]

I liked the railmotor in the background of the 4th pic in post #150... glad I'm not relying on the wheels staying on the rails though!

I thought the hubcap had come adrift!

 

[Ashley Hill]

Hello @MarkyT do feel free to post this gorgeously evocative image onto the thread linked below. It's absolutely deserving of it!

Show off your realistic AI railway images!

I have started this thread after becoming rather too addicted (so my wife says...) to the capabilities of AI and Big Data. There are several AI image generators. I use Google Gemini. These images are created using my own descriptions into AI. Add your realistic AI generated railway themed...

www.railforums.co.uk

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 26 Jul 2025 ==

Ask Gemini for a railway yard at night, with a Colas class 56 and two Colas class 70s. Can't be hard, right? Right?

That leading loco actually looks like a good design. Can you put it on the Night Riviera?

 

[zwk500]

Ask Gemini for a railway yard at night, with a Colas class 56 and two Colas class 70s. Can't be hard, right? Right?

The switched diamond in the yard is rather over-the-top but at least believable. The staff playing Jenga feels like a dig from the AI!

 

[Sun Chariot]

The staff playing Jenga feels like a dig from the AI!

Well, I thought I'd provide a little light relief for the night-shift workers there.

 

[DJ_K666]

I put in "Create me an image of a British Rail Southern Region Electric multiple unit, similar to the Class 421 and 422 which operated until the early 2000s"

And got this:

 

[Rick1984]

A Merry Go Round Train passing a coal fired power station.

Tried this myself and got this gem

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 27 Jul 2025 ==

View attachment 183700

Following the success of the Intercity 125 rollout on the Western region, BR began to look at building a high speed line to speed up London to Glasgow journeys. Here an early 90s build Intercity 300 EMU glides past the Colne Valley reservoirs on its way north in October 1998. The Japanese influence on Metro-Cammell’s first high speed train design is clearly evident.

Love the livery and train . Nice catenary as well.

I do like some of the liveries AI has created. Better than a lot of real ones

 

[61653 HTAFC]

I put in "Create me an image of a British Rail Southern Region Electric multiple unit, similar to the Class 421 and 422 which operated until the early 2000s"

And got this:View attachment 184918

I quite like that design, it looks like a sort of parallel universe 156. At least the doors are PRM compliant!

 

[Sun Chariot]

Class 66s and 68s render pretty accurately. 37s and 47s fairly close but bodysides get a few too many grilles and windows. A few examples are on this linked thread:

Show off your realistic AI railway images!

I have started this thread after becoming rather too addicted (so my wife says...) to the capabilities of AI and Big Data. There are several AI image generators. I use Google Gemini. These images are created using my own descriptions into AI. Add your realistic AI generated railway themed...

www.railforums.co.uk

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 27 Jul 2025 ==

However, this one definitely doesn't make the cut for Realistic AI Railway Images.
There are many public images of D1015 Western Champion; and probably a fair few images of Reading station.
So put them together and we get.... ah

 

[JKF]

I like a lot of the fictitious locos that are generated, with some you can trace the lineage to real classes. Some would make a nice modelling project!

The oversized BR arrows on the blue livery examples in this thread look like what you’d get averaging out a large logo loco with a standard BR blue one, which says a bit about how AI works I guess.

 

[Sun Chariot]

A rake of "nearly" 4-VEP units, after kicking out time at the pub...

 

[Transilien]

A rake of "nearly" 4-VEP units, after kicking out time at the pub...

Maybe it’s an alternate universe where class 309s ran to Kings Cross as that roof looks pretty similar.

 

[Topological]

A rake of "nearly" 4-VEP units, after kicking out time at the pub...

To be fair, if there was more glass in the roof then I could believe that was Paddington now.

The advert saying "send in the clowns on a groupsave" is a genius piece of marketing. Better than the famous 5 even.

 

[Rick1984]

1. Draw the most worn out scotrail train
2. Draw British rail class 68 with Mark 5 carriages in scotrail 7city livery