AI-generated (not entirely realistic) railway images

[Class15]

So instead of asking AI for some nostalgia, I asked for a crystal ball - what a Stadler Flirt derived future might look like for ScotRail, both inter7city services and more sub-urban services. View attachment 209423

Can but dream! View attachment 209422
I like the nod to the HST - class 430 !

I love these!

 

[Sun Chariot]

So instead of asking AI for some nostalgia, I asked for a crystal ball - what a Stadler Flirt derived future might look like for ScotRail.

I do like these "what if"

 

[Ashley Hill]

A suitable replacement for the GWR class 175s. A GWR liveried class 67 and Mk3 coaches round the curve on the sea wall.

 

[Sun Chariot]

I thought a 175 replacement is a 150/2, @Ashley Hill

In mythology, Apollo rode a sun chariot; so Standard 7MT 70015 seems appropriate.

 

[Topological]

A suitable replacement for the GWR class 175s. A GWR liveried class 67 and Mk3 coaches round the curve on the sea wall.
View attachment 209456

GWR, the new home for TfW cast offs...

Should take the Mk4 though.

Very happy to swap those for the 175s.

 

[Sun Chariot]

More work needed. A shout-out to the herculean efforts from restorers and preservationists.

 

[billh]

I'm so pleased that 70015 is still about, it must be more than 60 years since I last saw it. Must be quite a recent picture with that hire boat in current livery.

 

[D6130]

I'm so pleased that 70015 is still about, it must be more than 60 years since I last saw it. Must be quite a recent picture with that hire boat in current livery.

....and the LSL mixed rake behind her!

 

[Topological]

I'm so pleased that 70015 is still about, it must be more than 60 years since I last saw it. Must be quite a recent picture with that hire boat in current livery.

Reminds me a lot of Black Prince hire boats. We had one in the mid 1990s in that colour from Black Prince anyway. Did the Four Counties Ring one year and the Cheshire Ring the next. Who would not want to go on holiday to Stoke* after all

(Yes Stoke is not the right geographic description and Eturria is not actually Stoke, but saying Stoke gives a better impression and this is the not entirely realistic thread)

 

[170399]

It could rain at some point but in the meantime we will have to settle for this.

 

[Sun Chariot]

The Not-real Ale Train. Scenes recalling a customer sector all-but-lost from today's railway.

Reminds me a lot of Black Prince hire boats. We had one in the mid 1990s in that colour from Black Prince anyway. Did the Four Counties Ring one year and the Cheshire Ring the next.

The boat is of course painted in homage to LSL's Midland Pullman brand and HST set.
Whilst no match for the LSL rake's speed, spaciousness and catering, "Jenny" has circumnavigated Greater London using a network of restored canals known as The Middlesex Ring.

 

[Topological]

The Not-real Ale Train. Scenes recalling a customer sector all-but-lost from today's railway.



The boat is of course painted in homage to LSL's Midland Pullman brand and HST set.
Whilst no match for the LSL rake's speed, spaciousness and catering, "Jenny" has circumnavigated Greater London using a network of restored canals known as The Middlesex Ring.

I was meaning the near boat. Jenny is clearly not a Black Prince. Is there a suggestion the pull man has replaced the horse in directing Jenny?

It would be good to see more Chariot Ales on the railways of the UK. I often ponder why there are not wooden casks bound for all parts of the UK. Probably linked to Essex somehow. Not sure that is like a brewery I know though.

 

[Sun Chariot]

Is there a suggestion the pull man has replaced the horse in directing Jenny?.

The bookish young lady engrossed in Pride and Prejudice, is longing for her Mr Darcy to rise, moist-fringed, up from the canal's rippled surface.
The balding chap on the "Jenny", is merely hoping for a tug*.

* Narrowboats get caught in weeds, too.

 

[BeeBus]

Well, I've bitten the bullet and had a go - and I was right, it is absorbing and very time-consuming so it's a good job I had something I needed to do that I could then put it off to have a play with Gemini! I've gone for nostalgia as that is my thing anyway and in some ways it's debatable whether these belong in the realistic thread, but they are AI so there will always be some unrealistic bits.

Both of these have used photographs as a basis but for the first one Gemini had to work harder as the only photo I had was of the trackbed some years after closure. They thus have a basis very much in reality. The location is Grasscroft Halt (my user name on RMWeb!), which was just up from Greenfield on the line to Oldham, closed to passengers in 1955 and to all traffic in 1964. The first is a recreation of a train I used to go out to watch, in part because it was the only one on the line which I knew when it would come - by this time it was nearly all light engine movements to Lees shed. This exception was a Leeds to Wavertree parcels which would pass through around 1720 and came that way as Oldham had become an important parcels centre. It was hauled by a Farnley Junction Jubilee and I have picked the most memorable one 45581 Bihar and Orissa. I got sick of the sight of that one but what I'd give to see it again!

This picture caused me to engage in a real battle with AI trying to get it to do what I wanted and I haven't fully succeeded. I kept telling it to curve the tracks round to the left but it insisted on going the other way. The signal was one I didn't understand as a youngster - it was a fixed distant mounted on the wrong side of the track for sighting purposes, but I couldn't get Gemini to put it the 'wrong' way round. There was a minor road underbridge that I tried to get it to show, but it came up with all sorts of plausible but incorrect interpretations. The white smokebox door hinges are intentional, 45581 was readily-identifiable because of them. It also ignored my instructions for the headcode and despite saying it was a 7-coach parcels train it just made it a longer train of passenger Mark Is. However, despite all this it has a palpable sense of location.

The second image is one where I took a photograph of one of the push-pull trains in the last days of passenger service and got Gemini to replace it with an English Electric Type 4. Even I, who lived next to this line, would have said that they never ran this way but I was wrong. On at least one occasion work, presumably at Stalybridge, resulted in a Liverpool-Newcastle train taking this route from Ashton (OAGB Junction to Greenfield) and I have a photo of one such train passing through Oldham earlier in the journey than seen here. There's inaccuracies here as well - no headcode discs (I've only just spotted that one) and I thought it should have no OHLE warning signs but looking at the photo in Oldham it had just one at the front. The halt is more complete than it would have been at the time, I'm pretty sure the buildings were removed very soon after closure although the platforms remained. However, if I told Gemini the halt was closed everything became overgrown and it got a bit carried away. This view shows the fixed distant signal in its correct place but for some reason it has decided to enlarge the bore of the distant Lydgate Tunnel to a cavernous size. The bridge over the railway before the tunnel is the viewpoint for the first shot of 45581.

Hopefully of interest....

 

[Sun Chariot]

Super stuff @BeeBus - your Jubilee image, particularly, oozes "1960s colour film" and its an evocative composition. Please feel free to share them both on the RM Web thread (I've just tagged you)

 

[Ashley Hill]

Excellent images @BeeBus.

 

[Topological]

Great work @BeeBus , an area where I would often go walking as a PhD student. It helps that connections at Stalybridge involve the buffet and there are ample pubs to visit once you are off the stopping train.

In terms of Gemini, it is addictive. However, sometimes Gemini is very stubborn and will not do what you ask. Gemini does work as a standard Generative AI so you can converse with it. For example, if you want the tracks to bend left then say

"Do not generate an image. I am trying to create a scene in which the tracks bend to the left. However, every time I include bending left in the prompt, the tracks still bend to the right. Can you please help me to update my prompt so that the tracks bend towards the left of the image as viewed. Do not generate an image, I just want an improved prompt"

The "do not generate an image" is because often Gemini will see words that mean image, such as "scene" in the example, and then generate an image anyway. I have done this with a few of the various images in the year I have been generating images. Note Gemini should remember the "prompt" to which you refer. If not, then in the next request include the original prompt alongside the above. Remember to stress you do not want it it to generate an image.

I do appreciate that I often work characters into the pictures to tell stories. Recently, it has been the Manchester Convention attendees going on a tour in a Bee Network bus. It was supposed to be a comment on Burnham becoming PM, but then he has now gone on tour so maybe it was actually a satirical premonition. It is my own like of the older style of satirical humour from when I was younger that prompts that series. I still have my Anika and the Academic past and present series in South Wales. That is a personal story which created the characters, but I enjoyed thinking about how locations change over time and I may still bring that series back.

I do enjoy constructing the stories based on music, so many posts gain that slant. I do not know the mix of audience for this thread, but assume that there will be more resonance with the 1990s and early 2000s than there is with the present chart scene. I was just revsiting The Shirehorses from Mark and Lard on Radio 1 recently to determine where the ManCon attendees should go on their trips. Again just adding a bit of thought to the images as well as hopefully giving something worth looking at. Admittedly, that meant Dave Lee Travesty "Why is it always Dairylea?" was a very surreal image.

Good luck with the creations. As you are finding out though, it is very addictive.

Maybe one day we will be allowed two threads again so the more "humorous" stuff can be detached from the ultra-realistic images. In the meantime I hope there will always be space for both in this thread.

 

[BeeBus]

Thanks for the feedback and advice @Topological. I no doubt have a long way to go yet to create the ultimate image - I've realised that you develop this stage-by-stage. Firstly you're amazed at the atmosphere portrayed, then you start to try to control details, then you start to make the picture tell a story. Another one for now then I must have a break to get other things done, but I'm sure I'll be back.

The trouble with getting absorbed with university and work meant that I missed a whole chapter in our local rail network, one that seems to have also passed any other photographers by. The local branch to Delph (the service on which was part of the Oldham to Greenfield service and known as the Delph Donkey) didn't end, but it was reduced to a very basic branch. GMPTE eventually subsidised the service but it was so hopelessly unremunerative that even a two-car Pacer was too much so they devised this single one known as the Nodding Delph Donkey. As the line was "one donkey in steam" there was no issue with trackcircuit activation, I imagine special arrangement were made for the short stretch from Delph Junction to Greenfield Junction.

I didn't know all this and have deduced it based on AI producing this single car vehicle when I asked for a two-car one, so it clearly knew better than me! I've had to piece together the back story...

I understand the local platelayer had a Hornby three-rail train set when he was young and thought that was normal.

 

[Sun Chariot]

Maybe one day we will be allowed two threads again so the more "humorous" stuff can be detached from the ultra-realistic images. In the meantime I hope there will always be space for both in this thread.

A forum-poll, for a thread with a monthly AI images theme, you say?

 

[Topological]

Thanks for the feedback and advice @Topological. I no doubt have a long way to go yet to create the ultimate image - I've realised that you develop this stage-by-stage. Firstly you're amazed at the atmosphere portrayed, then you start to try to control details, then you start to make the picture tell a story. Another one for now then I must have a break to get other things done, but I'm sure I'll be back.

The trouble with getting absorbed with university and work meant that I missed a whole chapter in our local rail network, one that seems to have also passed any other photographers by. The local branch to Delph (the service on which was part of the Oldham to Greenfield service and known as the Delph Donkey) didn't end, but it was reduced to a very basic branch. GMPTE eventually subsidised the service but it was so hopelessly unremunerative that even a two-car Pacer was too much so they devised this single one known as the Nodding Delph Donkey. As the line was "one donkey in steam" there was no issue with trackcircuit activation, I imagine special arrangement were made for the short stretch from Delph Junction to Greenfield Junction.

I didn't know all this and have deduced it based on AI producing this single car vehicle when I asked for a two-car one, so it clearly knew better than me! I've had to piece together the back story...

I understand the local platelayer had a Hornby three-rail train set when he was young and thought that was normal.

I need to know your secret. We tried to create a Thomas the Tank Engine approach where all trains were single carriage. It was a nightmare so we never got that far. I cannot remember whether my story about Paul the 196 ever actually made it to being complete. I do note the tracks bend to the right in this one. To be fair, I only specified passing Cadbury World. The rest was filled in by AI.

 

[BeeBus]

I need to know your secret. We tried to create a Thomas the Tank Engine approach where all trains were single carriage. It was a nightmare so we never got that far. I cannot remember whether my story about Paul the 196 ever actually made it to being complete. I do note the tracks bend to the right in this one. To be fair, I only specified passing Cadbury World. The rest was filled in by AI.

View attachment 209625

I think the only secret I have to share is that AI doesn't always do what you want and sometimes it's better, and potentially more interesting, to go with what it's given you than what you were aiming for. The concept of a single-coach Pacer hadn't previously entered my head (and my railway engineering background has shouted out several reasons why it would not have been a good idea!).

 

[Topological]

A forum-poll, for a thread with a monthly AI images theme, you say?

It would be flooded with AI slop before you know it...



I worry that you do protest too much:



We all need a nice day out in the countryside without all that protesting



== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 15 Aug 2026 ==

I think the only secret I have to share is that AI doesn't always do what you want and sometimes it's better, and potentially more interesting, to go with what it's given you than what you were aiming for. The concept of a single-coach Pacer hadn't previously entered my head (and my railway engineering background has shouted out several reasons why it would not have been a good idea!).

I think I just spent too long telling it I did want the single-carriage train.

I note my protests against slop also include the tracks bending right. The road bends right too. This is probably because it is easy to generate than the left bend.

 

[170399]

A forum-poll, for a thread with a monthly AI images theme, you say?

It seems The Railway Magazine has started to do something similar called "AI Watch" which shows an image found online that is seen to be completely unrealistic.

 

[Sun Chariot]

It seems The Railway Magazine has started to do something similar called "AI Watch" which shows an image found online that is seen to be completely unrealistic.

British Railway Modelling (BRM) uses fake steam and smoke on several of its photos of layouts. That has caused a lively and a very divisive debate.

I think I see more folk on the "spot the fake AI" bandwagon - Railway Magazine is by no means alone in that - than being "for" what AI can achieve even at this early life-stage (link)

AI-generated (not entirely realistic) railway images

Are you going to Scarborough Fair? Inspired by my trips in August 1985 (34092 "City of Wells") / May 1990 (with 20 010 + 20 132), when the fine semaphore gantry dominated station's throat. This scene re-imagines the track layout and horizon - with a 40 doing what they did best!

www.railforums.co.uk

 

[Topological]

Whilst scouting through my technical manuals, I have found out how Traksy works. There is some artistic licence, but the paint the diagram and upload approach is pretty much in keeping with what I thought. How else would the track circuit know it had a mobility buggy on it at Paddington today (for example)

 

[Sun Chariot]

Storm's brewing. Different locations and era, same British weather.
Fanny's quayside stall door flaps open, its smell of fish still lingers. Sid's yard business folded, so his sons instead run a trawler.
Sid's sons - named after the 11th Century rulers of the North Sea Empire (England, Norway, Denmark) - stand at trawler's bow. Cnut The Great calls to us; maybe he's correcting us on his name's pronunciation. His sibling, Harthacnut, looks on.

 

[Topological]

Storm's brewing. Different locations and era, same British weather.
Fanny's quayside stall door flaps open, its smell of fish still lingers. Sid's yard business folded, so his sons instead run a trawler.
Sid's sons - named after the 11th Century rulers of the North Sea Empire (England, Norway, Denmark) - stand at trawler's bow. Cnut The Great calls to us; maybe he's correcting us on his name's pronunciation. His sibling, Harthacnut, looks on.

Evocative images indeed. Not enough people are named after 11th Century leaders of North Sea Empires, though plenty act like they are.

My concern is about whoever left that rope there. There will be less going into that box if the boat cannot moor.



Next time someone says that there are too many tracks on a model railway design track plan, think of this location. A nightmare trying to update Traksy live on an Etch-a-Sketch. Good spot to update from though.

 

[HighlandStorm]

The last image by @BeeBus and the thread on what can the railway learn from Ember about electrification got me thinking - maybe the pacer concept just needs updated and could solve the rolling stock issues for the West Highland Line. Here is Ember's prototype ePacer running a local Fort William service on a widened Puggy Line!

 

[Topological]

The last image by @BeeBus and the thread on what can the railway learn from Ember about electrification got me thinking - maybe the pacer concept just needs updated and could solve the rolling stock issues for the West Highland Line. Here is Ember's prototype ePacer running a local Fort William service on a widened Puggy Line!

Magnificent concept. I am just thinking how great it would be if they were driverless and you could travel around looking out of the front.

It is good that they are reusing TOPS numbers.

 

[BeeBus]

Evocative images indeed. Not enough people are named after 11th Century leaders of North Sea Empires, though plenty act like they are.

My concern is about whoever left that rope there. There will be less going into that box if the boat cannot moor.

View attachment 209659

Next time someone says that there are too many tracks on a model railway design track plan, think of this location. A nightmare trying to update Traksy live on an Etch-a-Sketch. Good spot to update from though.

Gemini has coped better with the tracks than it usually does - I think I'd have a job getting it right when there's so many. Did well to catch the scene without any trains on that might give away its location - is it Springfield?