AI-generated (not entirely realistic) railway images

[D6130]

I knew I wouldn't get a brakeless rake past ex-BR folk! I can count on two hands, the number of times Gemini has given me a BSK / BCK of its own accord.
For this one, I specified 6 Mk1s with the Brake Second in middle of the consist. I reckon Gemini was pooped-out from all that NBL action...

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 27 Sep 2026 ==

@Ashley Hill @D6130 I've tweaked my input and Gemini liked my specified BG. Amended image now in post 1704.

That's better.....although marshalling a BG in the middle of the train was a speciality of the Kyle line, rather than the West Highland. (There's no pleasing some people, is there? ).

 

[Ashley Hill]

I knew I wouldn't get a brakeless rake past ex-BR folk! I can count on two hands, the number of times Gemini has given me a BSK / BCK of its own accord.
For this one, I specified 6 Mk1s with the Brake Second in middle of the consist. I reckon Gemini was pooped-out from all that NBL action...

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 27 Sep 2026 ==

@Ashley Hill @D6130 I've tweaked my input and Gemini liked my specified BG. Amended image now in post 1704.

And now the guard does not have to sit with the passengers or worry about his scotches (the wooden variety)

 

[Sun Chariot]

That's better.....although marshalling a BG in the middle of the train was a speciality of the Kyle line, rather than the West Highland. (There's no pleasing some people, is there? ).

Just as well it's the "not entirely" thread.
Yes, I was writing the description based on the formation of my 37 417-hauled services to and from Kyle, in 1988.

 

[pint]

Sit back and enjoy this realistic and historuicaly acurate archive film:
"1928 What It Was Really Like to Ride First Class on the Flying Scotsman"

 

[Topological]

That is exactly like my train on The Marches.

The only thing that I spotted in the video that was not realistic is that the passengers were not sprinting down the platform at Kings Cross because of a late platform announcement.

 

[Sun Chariot]

Another Scottish one from me. @D6130 has a doppelganger on the Up Highland TPO. I couldn't resist Drumochter - and it seems Inverness doesn't trust the NBL, so a Brush Type 4 gives a helpful shove up to the summit.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 29 Sep 2026 ==

Sit back and enjoy this realistic and historuicaly acurate archive film:

 

[D6130]

Another Scottish one from me. @D6130 has a doppelganger on the Up Highland TPO. I couldn't resist Drumochter - and it seems Inverness doesn't trust the NBL, so a Brush Type 4 gives a helpful shove up to the summit.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 29 Sep 2026 ==

Lovely image! In reality there was only ever one recorded visit to Inverness by a rebuilt class 29 and that was D6121 on a troop special from Glasgow sometime in the late '60s. Perth men signed 29s, but Inverness men didn't.... although a few years earlier they signed the original unrebuilt 21s, which found their way across from Aberdeen occasionally. They also worked the Keith-Aviemore Speyside branch service with one or two coaches when the railbus wasn't available.

 

[Sun Chariot]

Runs as required: this re-imagined 1980s scene. The Saab driver as impatient as today's motorists...

Lovely image! In reality there was only ever one recorded visit to Inverness by a rebuilt class 29 and that was D6121 on a troop special from Glasgow sometime in the late '60s. Perth men signed 29s, but Inverness men didn't.... although a few years earlier they signed the original unrebuilt 21s, which found their way across from Aberdeen occasionally. They also worked the Keith-Aviemore Speyside branch service with one or two coaches when the railbus wasn't available.

I wanted to give your namesake a day out. Perth mustve had a driver take it north; Inverness was keen to banish it!

Couldn't get it to render Gill Sans Serif narrow font, though!

 

[D6130]

Runs as required: this re-imagined 1980s scene. The Saab driver as impatient as today's motorists...



I wanted to give your namesake a day out. Perth mustve had a driver take it north; Inverness was keen to banish it!

Couldn't get it to render Gill Sans Serif narrow font, though!

Is that Marchwood?

 

[Sun Chariot]

Sulzers at Stobbs. A sickly oil-stained Type 4 Peak has been rescued by Haymarket's Type 2 stalwarts; its two-tone green D5072 at the front. The farmer isn't impressed - he has seen many failed diesels along here.

Is that Marchwood?

It is - and virtually backdated 40 years. Here's the real one.

 

[Topological]

The farmer in the second image is clearly surveying the scene and thinking "In my day we had voyagers, they were much more reliable"

 

[Sun Chariot]

The farmer in the second image is clearly surveying the scene and thinking "In my day we had voyagers, they were much more reliable"

Or perhaps: "How did all my ruddy flock cross that railway line, without me noticing?"

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 1 Oct 2026 ==

The Chariot chain has cleverly opted for EV wireless-charging mats in the car park; which appeases The National Trust and the Borough Council folk, even though EVs lack the required wireless-charging capability.

 

[Topological]

The Chariot chain has always been at the cutting edge of technology. Elon Musks empire has nothing on The Chariot.



I am wondering whether the Tesla owner actually made a short trip down the night before, over-imbibed on the fine ales in the pub and then took a taxi home. There is definitely a sense that it is only the trains that move with any sense of urgency here.

It is all a far cry from the bustle captured amongst the workers in the video @pint posted.

 

[Sun Chariot]

Deleted

 

[High Dyke]

A colleague described the RHTT as "Squirty Bertie". With the RHTT season beginning, then it's time to start work.

Image vastly different from the source picture. Image shows an AI generated picture of a Railhead Treatment Train.

 

[Sun Chariot]

I can vouch that "Squirty Bertie" is nothing like Squirty Gertie: heavy-set middle-aged lady cleaner-cum-dancer-cum-swiller who frequented an East End pub in the 1990s.

Gertie could down a pint quicker than any chap there. Gertie had also cleared all of the LT&S units listed in her Platform 5 EMU pocket book. She was regularly taken for a ride in them.

 

[HighlandStorm]

Caledonian Sleeper maybe expanding its horizons, but over at ScotRail it’s all about keeping the Inter7city show on the road after learning there’s not enough class 37s to save the day on their own.

 

[Tester]

Caledonian Sleeper maybe expanding its horizons, but over at ScotRail it’s all about keeping the Inter7city show on the road after learning there’s not enough class 37s to save the day on their own.

View attachment 212592

Where's the ETHEL?

 

[Sun Chariot]

Dover Marine, early 1970s.
Dover Marine - aka Western Docks - was a station I intended to visit from Oxford, via IC service, in early 1990s; but I failed to do so - and then it was too late.

Where's the ETHEL?

Been replaced with Squirty Bertie...

 

[High Dyke]

Meanwhile, all available stock is utilised for a Footex.

 

[Topological]

I am sure some will argue that does not look like Waverley, but there are clearly platforms in all directions and they correctly sign "Other Platforms" differently from "Platforms" and in the opposite direction to "Corner Platforms".

The decision of some supporters to fly the French Flag is interesting.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 1 Oct 2026 ==

It turns out The Chariot only offers slow charge.

 

[Sun Chariot]

Recalling Scunthorpe United's matches against Exeter City in the latter 1980s. Are the fans so happy because Scunthorpe beat their Division rivals, or because they had a Mk1 FK for their trip back to Waterloo?
And were Exeter home fans welcoming, @Cowley @Ashley Hill ?

At Victoria, the British Pullman reatores elegance of the train and of its passengers. The long shadows tell us it's winter, so thank goodness the stewards kept the vestibule doors shut.

It turns out The Chariot only offers slow charge.

If only The Chariot chain had bid for Dover Western Docks in late 1994, then they had the chance to offer charging off the 3rd rail - years before EVs caught up.
A step-down transformer would avoid both cars and owners being over-charged; and clear locational signage would avoid hidden charges.

 

[Topological]

Those passengers at Victoria look like they will be troubling the staff on the way back home from the races. It is always the seemingly innocent ones.

Meanwhile, excellent respect of the first class facilities from the Scunthorpe fans. I appreciate Scunthorpe is home to The Honest Lawyer (my usual venue ahead of a trip to Glandford Park), but I suspect all who travel on the Footex would be so respectful of the yellow stripe.

Meanwhile a more typical representation of football, the railways and northern England.

 

[Sun Chariot]

I hear the Scunthorpe's lads had an in-carriage Backgammon session during their journey. A good FK ride, by all accounts.

 

[Ashley Hill]

And were Exeter home fans welcoming, @Cowley @Ashley Hill ?

You’re asking the wrong person there, I don’t follow football.

 

[Sun Chariot]

You’re asking the wrong person there, I don’t follow football.

Me neither (wrong-shaped ball and all that) but local inter-team fighting, back then, was visible in the streets too.

 

[Ashley Hill]

Without a game today the footie fans ponder what to do next. Meanwhile Dave is off for a more relaxed afternoon.

 

[Topological]

An impressively on time Cross Country train there, presumably a glimpse at the future when more doors are added to the 220s.

For all our woes this year, it is good to be reminded of those worse off. Thank you @Ashley Hill . Nonetheless, I will now have to go and scrub my eyes.



There may be an issue with the signal in this photograph.

 

[Sun Chariot]

Without a game today the footie fans ponder what to do next. Meanwhile Dave is off for a more relaxed afternoon.
View attachment 212702

Dave's on cue, I see!

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 3 Oct 2026 ==

An impressively on time Cross Country train there, presumably a glimpse at the future when more doors are added to the 220s.

For all our woes this year, it is good to be reminded of those worse off. Thank you @Ashley Hill . Nonetheless, I will now have to go and scrub my eyes.

View attachment 212704

There may be an issue with the signal in this photograph.

The Sprinter's white headlights and signal's green aspect, suggest a SPAD, or a fault on track-circuit or signal. Either way, it should clear things out after travelling a short way into the tunnel, then reversing and repeating.

The SUFC merchandise in close foreground reminded me that Scunthorpe United has played against Arsenal once in football's competitive history.
The match took place on September 25, 1968, in the Third Round of the Football League Cup at Scunthorpe's former home stadium, The Old Show Ground.
First Division Arsenal defeated Fourth Division Scunthorpe 6–1. Arsenal reached the League Cup final.
Up The Gunners!

 

[Trackman]

One for the older members of the forums, this would have been really helpful if it was real