AI-generated (not entirely realistic) railway images

[Sun Chariot]

Another fasciating and clearly genuine twinkle into our fair nation's rich history. In both images, I see evidence of local enterprise:
Gaynor's Skewen Skewers, a small and bonnie-looking kebab shop. It was sold when the proprietor changed professions.
It became a homewares-disco themed bar with an Ethiopian restaurant, catchily named AddisAbbaBar.

 

[Topological]

Another fasciating and clearly genuine twinkle into our fair nation's rich history. In both images, I see evidence of local enterprise:
Gaynor's Skewen Skewers, a small and bonnie-looking kebab shop. It was sold when the proprietor changed professions.
It became a homewares-disco themed bar with an Ethiopian restaurant, catchily named AddisAbbaBar.

Not enough shops pay homage to bin brands. It was remiss of me not to comment on their relcoation into the Forum Shopping Centre in 2022.

The newsstand did not relocate. News ceased in Pontynandoes with the demolition of the old station.

 

[chrisjo]

It is all a big change from the old Victoria terminus that stood on the site.

Whoever produced that 'Cymru yn croesawu rhaglen reilffyrdd newydd' should have been shot. And that was before the days of Google Translate.

 

[Topological]

Whoever produced that 'Cymru yn croesawu rhaglen reilffyrdd newydd' should have been shot. And that was before the days of Google Translate.

I had a brief panic then because I never actually thought to check

Google says: Wales welcomes new rail programme

Therefore I assume that Gemini just made a lot of grammar errors in the translations?

If the image needs taking down then I will do. Got to be careful even if most people on my street are not Welsh speakers.

 

[Ashley Hill]

Google says: Wales welcomes new rail programme

That saves me googling it .

 

[Sun Chariot]

Exeter St David's stablng-point - with an intentionally-altered track geometry, to better show IKB and Burma Star.
I have photos of both locos in blue, although 47 484 was at Exeter Central and 33 056 at Clapham Junction yard with Boat Train stock.

The 71 heads south, down Portsmouth Direct Line - a route not associated with this loco class, so this is a special for a ceremony at Portsmouth's Royal Navy Dockyard.

 

[D6130]

Exeter St David's stablng-point with an intentionally-altered track geometry to better show IKB and Burma Star.
I have photos of both locos in blue, although 47 484 was at Exeter Central and 33 056 at Clapham Junction yard with Boat Train stock.

The 71 heads south, down Portsmouth Direct Line - a route not associated with this loco class, so this is a special for a ceremony at Portsmouth's Royal Navy Dockyard.

Nice images. Such specials did operate down the PDL occasionally in the 'seventies....but more usually hauled by a class 74.

 

[Sun Chariot]

Nice images. Such specials did operate down the PDL occasionally in the 'seventies....but more usually hauled by a class 74.

Thanks @D6130 - yep, I found a couple of photos of 74s south of Guildford but not a single 71.

 

[D6130]

Thanks @D6130 - yep, I found a couple of photos of 74s south of Guildford but not a single 71.

I believe the preserved class 71, no. E5001, worked a railtour down the PDL sometime in the 1990s, though.

 

[Sun Chariot]

I believe the preserved class 71, no. E5001, worked a railtour down the PDL sometime in the 1990s, though.

I have a 1990s photo of E5001 at Waterloo - I'll look on Six Bells Junction website, to find which tour and route it was used on (gut-feel it went via SW Main to Southampton).

 

[Ashley Hill]

That’s a very good creation of Exeter shed. No sign of the Farm Hill housing development that now dominates the background hills. Did you use an old photo or is it entirely AI?

 

[Sun Chariot]

That’s a very good creation of Exeter shed. No sign of the Farm Hill housing development that now dominates the background hills. Did you use an old photo or is it entirely AI?

Thanks G. That is entirely me writing a text description, with my mid-1980s 35mm photos, plus cross-referencing some online photos to my own viewpoints. I did include instruction to Gemini to rreference 1980s images of the stabling point.
It took quite a while to write, let alone to get a decent result...

I wanted to show that, before Sectorisation, naunces of Rail Blue did exist - it wasn't all "monastral blue on every bit".
I do suspect your and my footprints have been on the same platforms at St Davids!


Festival season.
"Maybe we should've got an off-peak train - these commuters don't seem particularly sociable...."

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I have a 1990s photo of E5001 at Waterloo - I'll look on Six Bells Junction website, to find which tour and route it was used on (gut-feel it went via SW Main to Southampton).

Probably to the Bournemouth open day? I think I was on that train, if so...

 

[Sun Chariot]

A Cambrian Cammell. Intentional slop, as "retro green" DMU 101 685 worked the Conwy Valley line, rather than along the Cambrian Coast route. Still, Barmouth Bridge came out OK.

After 2-May 1987's seminal tour "Three to the Sea", this what-if takes another trio of 20s to the "seat" at the bottom (well, the derriere) of Kent. Dungeness.
What next, eh? "Four to the Shore"? "Seven to North Devon"? "Nine to the Tyne"?)

A nod to the eighties when we thought the class 89 was the fleet of tomorrow. These photograohers are not into "front 3/4 view" shots - they're going "arty". As luck has it, one photographer's attempt worked on the 89's return (Mk3 DVT at other end of train).

Probably to the Bournemouth open day? I think I was on that train, if so...

Ah yes - very likely. I have no idea why I didn't book the trip. Oh, for a time-machine

 

[Ben Anslow]

@Bletchleyite imagine. First transpennine express if they had 195s

 

[Bletchleyite]

That actually looks OK!

 

[Harlequinuk]

Maybe a little more reliable than the current 221s on serice

 

[Ashley Hill]

I only ever saw the class 140 when it was dumped in Lipson sidings at Laira in 1982, and I never got to travel on it either. It was not even displayed at the open day that year. I bet the trips to Gunnislake were interesting with plenty of flange squeal. Here`s what i missed out on, 140001 passing over Calstock viaduct on a sunny day. Its not realistic as the line at Calstock curves the wrong way.

 

[Sun Chariot]

Stunning composition @Ashley Hill

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 18 Jul 2026 ==

From Saltburn to Swanage.
A trio of Choppers negotiate the Saltburn to Boulby branch. I've turned the line's real-life curvature the other way, to show more train.
Two views opposite Corfe Castle, on Swanage Railway. Class 33s are D6566 (green) + D6588 (blue). The two 159s emulate SWTs real-life trip, using 159004 + 159020, on 3rd May 2014.

 

[Ashley Hill]

Nice to see 20118 getting some exposure. I’ve driven that loco many times.

 

[Sun Chariot]

Inspired by Kenya's Lake Nakuru: in AI, a railway causeway's been added over its flamingo-abundant water. East African Railways classes 26 and 57 blacken the sky.

Nice to see 20118 getting some exposure. I’ve driven that loco many times.

Epic.
I first saw it May 1987; and it made a few appearances in my BR-era travels. I've yet to be hauled by it.
(the two pairs of 20s I was hauled by, in BR era, are long gone)

 

[Ben Anslow]

Maybe a little more reliable than the current 221s on serice

If chiltern didn’t get the mk5a carriages I could vision this and it looks brilliant aswell you’ve just given me and idea

 

[Sun Chariot]

Thirty-four Beyer-Garratt 59 class articulated (4-8-2 + 2-8-4) entered EAR service 1955-1956 - the largest, most powerful steam locomotives on any metre-gauge railway in the world.
Perhaps the chap by the cab was cleaning the front window lenses, unless he exited the cab via the side window...


A class 121 (DMBS + DTS) turns back at Princes Risborough, to access the line for Aylesbury. But wait! A diverted Banbury to Paddington fast is approaching...
Of course, this didn't happen here in reality.


And then only the memories remained.
(The 25 is in a siding; bufferstop is below line-of-sight. That disused, tall, post protected the other track - and located for sighting purposes.)

 

[Ashley Hill]

I’ve tried and failed with box interiors. Either the frame is wrong, the instruments wrong or the outside is wrong. AI seems to struggle with them.

 

[Sun Chariot]

I’ve tried and failed with box interiors. Either the frame is wrong, the instruments wrong or the outside is wrong. AI seems to struggle with them.

That's mainly why I wrote a disused box. I added a couple of discarded block instruments on the old writing-shelf, by the upturned armchair. The box's instrument shelf is long-since vandalised...

 

[Topological]

That's mainly why I wrote a disused box. I added a couple of discarded block instruments on the old writing-shelf, by the upturned armchair. The box's instrument shelf is long-since vandalised...

Clever.

I assumed that box was one of those on a bridge above the tracks and that the line had been lowered in preparation for a cancelled electrification scheme. The chair was damaged when the duty signaller forgot the line dropped sharply underneath and panicked. Rather than being closed, I assumed that it was boredom on a day where the line was closed for track widening that caused another of the signallers to smash the place up.

Incidentally, the track in the sunset picture would benefit from the track widening programme.

 

[Sun Chariot]

I love a thrEE-EE-EEsome.
1993's "Bishops Triple", powered north by 50 033 + D400 (50 050) + 50 007. A pair of RAF jets passes the three Hoovers used on the northbound leg.
Not realistic because wheat isn't harvested in the first week of June.
(My real-life shots were of their approach into Cheltenham; and then the claggy departure.)

I assumed that box was one of those on a bridge above the tracks and that the line had been lowered in preparation for a cancelled electrification scheme. The chair was damaged when the duty signaller forgot the line dropped sharply underneath and panicked. Rather than being closed, I assumed that it was boredom on a day where the line was closed for track widening that caused another of the signallers to smash the place up.

Oddly, every disused* railway building I explored in the 1980s, had at least one discarded well-thumbed** magazine of a common subject-matter. I never ascertained whether those mags arrived during, or after, the buildings were in use.

* Preston station's gents often had one or more mags, tucked behind cisterns in the cubicles. A chap might miss his train.

** Not merely well thumbed...

 

[Topological]

I love a thrEE-EE-EEsome.
1993's "Bishops Triple", powered north by 50 033 + D400 (50 050) + 50 007. A pair of RAF jets passes the three Hoovers used on the northbound leg.
Not realistic because wheat isn't harvested in the first week of June.
(My real-life shots were of their approach into Cheltenham; and then the claggy departure.)




Oddly, every disused* railway building I explored in the 1980s, had at least one discarded well-thumbed** magazine of a common subject-matter. I never ascertained whether those mags arrived during, or after, the buildings were in use.

* Preston station's gents often had one or more mags, tucked behind cisterns in the cubicles. A chap might miss his train.

** Not merely well thumbed...

I will not ask why you would be going around checking for magazines in old railway buildings. However, well done for taking the time to double-check the consistency of the subject matter.

When capturing the picture, were you able to get a second photo of the carriages. There is an interesting advertising livery on the side but it is hard to make out what is being promoted from the angle of the first photo. Was the coke can consumed by young Chariot, or one of his entourage?

 

[Sun Chariot]

The Mk1s used on that real-life tour, were the utterly garish rake sponsored by Pilkington, to advertise their toughened "K" glass (adjacent vehicle-ends created a stylised K). They were ruinous of so many photos of the early-1990s. Here's one:

https://www.reddit.com/r/uktrains/comments/wya04e/99716_mk_1_corridor_second_built_derby_lot_30685/

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 21 Jul 2026 ==

Western sunset. Here's a much less garish livery....

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 21 Jul 2026 ==

We love to ride it. Inspired by my own June 2009 trip on the spectacular 64-miles long Cumbres & Toltec Railroad, over the Rockies (10,015 ft).
This imagines a more substantial narrow-gauge empire run between 19th Century's principle towns in North Texas, Utah and Colorado states.
That narrow strip of Oklahoma state offered little revenue to this railroad and so was shunned by the railroad's promoters. It is ironic that, 150 years later, OK residents come to ride the remaining, heritage, route.

 

[D6130]

The Mk1s used on that real-life tour, were the utterly garish rake sponsored by Pilkington, to advertise their toughened "K" glass (adjacent vehicle-ends created a stylised K). They were ruinous of so many photos of the early-1990s. Here's one:

https://www.reddit.com/r/uktrains/comments/wya04e/99716_mk_1_corridor_second_built_derby_lot_30685/

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 21 Jul 2026 ==

Western sunset. Here's a much less garish livery....

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 21 Jul 2026 ==

We love to ride it. Inspired by my own June 2009 trip on the spectacular 64-miles long Cumbres & Toltec Railroad, over the Rockies (10,015 ft).
This imagines a more substantial narrow-gauge empire run between 19th Century's principle towns in North Texas, Utah and Colorado states.
That narrow strip of Oklahoma state offered little revenue to this railroad and so was shunned by the railroad's promoters. It is ironic that, 150 years later, OK residents come to ride the remaining, heritage, route.

Great photos....but presumably 'OK residents' is a typo for 'UK residents'!