Howdy, y'all! 🤠You know me for World of Warships and How to Train Your Dragon, but today I want to share something different—a huge passion from my childhood that I still love today: American Railroads. 🚂💨
Specifically, my all-time favorite line: The Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O).
The C&O was famous for running absolutely massive freight and coal drags through the brutal grades of the Appalachian and Allegheny mountains in West Virginia. To conquer those grades, they built some of the most impressive machines in history. We are talking about legendary steam giants like the massive H-8 Allegheny, which remains one of the most powerful reciprocating steam engines ever built, designed specifically to haul coal over the mountains. Then you had the iconic Kanawhas (the C&O’s take on the 2-8-4 Berkshire, named after the river they ran beside) handling fast freight, the elegant Greenbriers built for speed on passenger lines, and the massive T1 "Texas" types that were the backbone of heavy hauling.
I’ve spent years looking at gritty black and white photos of these beasts in action, always wondering what it actually looked like in real life. Well, technology is getting wild.
Whether you love AI or hate it, the results can be jaw-dropping. I decided to test out Google Gemini's image tools to upscale and colorize a classic photo.
➡️ Look at the image below. 👇
This is a C&O T1 class (Engine No. 3039), a massive 2-10-4 designed for heavy freight, grinding up a grade in the Alleghenies.
The AI took a grainy B&W photo and turned it into this. It’s incredible—it honestly looks like a photo taken today with a vintage film camera. You can almost smell the coal smoke.
I am definitely going to be testing this out further on some other locomotives next.
What do y'all think of this restoration? Is it cool to see history brought to life like this? Let me know in the comments!
ThatEpicTexan
Howdy, y'all! 🤠You know me for World of Warships and How to Train Your Dragon, but today I want to share something different—a huge passion from my childhood that I still love today: American Railroads. 🚂💨
Specifically, my all-time favorite line: The Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O).
The C&O was famous for running absolutely massive freight and coal drags through the brutal grades of the Appalachian and Allegheny mountains in West Virginia. To conquer those grades, they built some of the most impressive machines in history. We are talking about legendary steam giants like the massive H-8 Allegheny, which remains one of the most powerful reciprocating steam engines ever built, designed specifically to haul coal over the mountains. Then you had the iconic Kanawhas (the C&O’s take on the 2-8-4 Berkshire, named after the river they ran beside) handling fast freight, the elegant Greenbriers built for speed on passenger lines, and the massive T1 "Texas" types that were the backbone of heavy hauling.
I’ve spent years looking at gritty black and white photos of these beasts in action, always wondering what it actually looked like in real life. Well, technology is getting wild.
Whether you love AI or hate it, the results can be jaw-dropping. I decided to test out Google Gemini's image tools to upscale and colorize a classic photo.
➡️ Look at the image below. 👇
This is a C&O T1 class (Engine No. 3039), a massive 2-10-4 designed for heavy freight, grinding up a grade in the Alleghenies.
The AI took a grainy B&W photo and turned it into this. It’s incredible—it honestly looks like a photo taken today with a vintage film camera. You can almost smell the coal smoke.
I am definitely going to be testing this out further on some other locomotives next.
What do y'all think of this restoration? Is it cool to see history brought to life like this? Let me know in the comments!
3 days ago | [YT] | 1