| Only railfans would find this amusing, but someone named the Kickapoo Valley Railroad Posters is selling around 70 different posters on ebay that were clearly made with AI. The posters are quite colorful and inaccurate enough to convince me to never trust anything AI tells me (as if I needed more evidence).
The Burlington Route is represented by several posters, one of which shows a streamlined train with a maroon stripe that might be over the window panel except that not a single car on the has windows. The background is a map that appears to be upside down as it shows Chicago next to the Mississippi River on the left and St. Paul on the right. Another Burlington poster urges people to travel the "way of the zippers!" A third shows a fairly accurate E5 locomotive pulling a streamlined train, except that the locomotive is labeled "Califorsiz Iaplar" and the B unit tapers down to fit the diminutive size of the original zephyrs.
There's plenty of amusement on the Milwaukee Road posters. One shows a Lehigh Valley Black Diamond steam locomotive painted in red and black and labeled Milwaukee Road 261 pulling a red-and-black streamlined train that features a Budd-style short dome car. Another shows a very maroon streamlined Olympian being pulled by what looks like a Great Northern Y-1A locomotive (the electric loco that was rebuilt after an accident to have F-style noses at either end) that is prominently labeled "The Olympian." Another has a "timeline" of locomotive evolution on the Milwaukee showing pictures of seven different locos, at least four of which were never seen anywhere in the U.S. Then there's a brown-and-yellow streamlined Olympian being pulled through the mountains by a Japanese-style electric locomotive.
One Great Northern poster shows 4-8-0 steam locomotive number 2518 pulling a red or maroon passenger train. Another shows 4-6-2 Great Northern steam locomotive 1244 pulling a red-and-blue passenger train. Needless to say, no such locomotives or color schemes ever existed on the GN.
Rio Grande is represented by an orange-and-maroon Diesel-powered streamlined train gliding past the Curicanti Needle. Then there's a Western Pacific freight train pulled by a double-ended Diesel emerging from a tunnel with Yosemite's half-dome in the background.
Some of the posters show multiple trains, including the Union Pacific Coast Starlight (an Armour yellow train pulled by the 844), the steam-powered red-and-silver California Zephyr, a maroon Southern Pacific Twilight Limited, a Southern Pacific GS-4 locomotive in Daylight colors pulling a yellow-and-red train labeled "Olympian Hiawatha," and an orange-and-green steam-powered heavyweight Great Northern Empire Builder being pulled by a red-and-black 4-6-2 locomotive. With the exception of the Santa Fe warbonnet locos and streamliners, most of the paint schemes range from "I might buy a toy train with that scheme for my kids" to "I'd sue the manufacturer if they came out with a model painted like that!"
Most of these posters are 8-1/2"x14" or 8-1/2"x17" and the maker is asking about $20 for them including shipping. A few are 11"x17" and sell for about $28 including shipping. Unless you want to get ornate but highly inaccurate posters for your birthday or Christmas, you might warn any relatives against buying these for you.
Best,
Randal O'Toole http://streamlinermemories.info
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