Where do they FLUSH??

[Anonymous]

This may sound like a dumb one, but where does the train crew in real life go for the personnal relief facility, when the train is on a long haul. Has anybody ever modeled that part of the Interior ??? Regards Steve

[daan]

I guess the problem might be not as big for the train crew except for the driver.. The service crew and personell in the caboose do have toilets. A caboose has a toilet (at least I suppose they have) and a passenger train does have them.
The big problem would be the driver (don't know the proper word in English.. Is that Engineer or Machinist??)
He can't leave the cab of his locomotive while the train is running. In Holland it is not allowed to drive more then 2 hours at once. Not with trains nor with roadtrucks or anything else, due to getting dull after that time which is a safety issue. Roadtrucks have a "running time indicator" which tracks the time the driver has driven and how much time he was having a break.
He has time for his pipi every 2 hours. With the traindriver it's also the case. But in Holland we don't have such "long haules" since our country is max 300km from the utter south to the utter north. With a freight train (and all tracks clear) you can travel trat distance in less then 3 hours. (freight trains drive 120km/h here, passenger trains 160)
Otherwise I would guess the driver has some canister in is cab for emergency..

[Kooljock1]

In a modern diesel, most facilities are in the nose of the wide "comfort cab". In many of the older ones they were just behind the cab bulkhead.

What may surprise many, is that up until the mid 1990's most trains just dumped waste directly to the tracks. This was true even on Amtrak passenger trains, until several states outlawed the practice, requiring Amtrak to rebuild their cars with holding tanks.

I remember as recently as ten years ago seeing waste laying between the rails at the local train station when passengers "flushed while in the station", which they weren't supposed to do!

Jon [8D]

[brianel027]

I was curious about the MP-15 diesel since I owned several K-Line ones, so I did some homework about the real version. The MP-15 was intended to take the place of GP-9's and might have been more successful except for one small reason. Changing railroad regulations required any locomotive going from state to state to have an on-board toilet, which the MP-15 did not.

[Buckeye Riveter]

Steve, Since you have worked construction you will understand what I am saying. The toilet area in the nose of engine is smaller than your standard construction site porta potty.

The million dollar questions is: Is this engine toliet heated or air conditioned?

Again, Steve understands what I am saying. [xx(][:)]

[FJ and G]

an engineer friend of mine from Arkansas used to run trains on the Missouri Pacific. He told me one time he went to use the bathroom in the locomotive, a very small compartment, and found a hobo asleep in there.

[Buckeye Riveter]

QUOTE: Originally posted by FJ and G

an engineer friend of mine from Arkansas used to run trains on the Missouri Pacific. He told me one time he went to use the bathroom in the locomotive, a very small compartment, and found a hobo asleep in there.

[(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D] Then who messed his pants?????

[Anonymous]

According to an engineer (he was a PRR/PC guy) I met as a teen, diesels basically had a pipe in the cab somewhere. Everything went down the pipe and straight to the tracks. I remember him telling me things were extremely awkward when the train was doing 60 because there was a tendency for whatever went down the pipe to be blown right back at the person doing his "dootie". (Not to mention the freezing of body parts during the winter months.)

On a more recent note, there was legislation passed in PA as a result of the NS/Conrail takeover that forbade the dumping of human waste from rail equipment directly to the tracks. Seems that Conrail had chemical toilets in most of its fleet. NS considered this a luxury and was planning to remove them from locomotives and move in locomotives that had the "pipe". The PA legislation basically put a stop to this. NS reaction was apparently to increase the time between chemical toilet maintenance cycles. Not sure what's become of this as of late.

Fred.

[brianel027]

Forgive me, but I just can't resist this.....[:D]

TNN (Train News Network)
Today lawyers for Lionel announced new legal action against K-Line for what they believe is the theft of trade secrets for the "Lionflush" and "Lionsmell" technology. According to Attorney Mr. Whipple "these guys have squeezed our Charmin just one too many times." Lionel claimes in sworn orange and blue colored brief that a certain K-Line engineer was seen several times leaving the men's room at Lionel headquarters with a long piece of toilet paper stuck to his shoe. It is believed that the men's room attendant (also a top engineer) encoded extra absorbant tissue with digital secrets to the "Lionflush" and "Lionsmell" technology.
"Today's current train market has become very demanding" grunted a spokesperson for Lionel. "The Lionflush and Lionsmell technology was the final enhancement to a true prototypical model railroading experience and we flushed a lot of money into this technology including using actual digital recordings from real toilets on actual train engines. K-Line is in deep doo-doo now."
There was no offical comment from K-Line other than they felt like they were being crapped on again, and were down in the dumps."

[wrmcclellan]

Buckeye,

Of course the toilet is air conditioned. Hot in summer and cold in winter [:-^].

[Anonymous]

It's hard to believe they got away with dumping on tracks till mid 90's. RV's have had holding tanks forever!!!! Glad they dont do that any more!

[dougdagrump]

brianel027,
[(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D] [bow]

[Anonymous]

hey david,did the hobo take a magazine with him???? Easter

[laz 57]

Didnt YUZ GIZ ever hear of hanging ROPE out the door?
laz57

[Big_Boy_4005]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Buckeye Riveter

Steve, Since you have worked construction you will understand what I am saying. The toilet area in the nose of engine is smaller than your standard construction site porta potty.

The million dollar questions is: Is this engine toliet heated or air conditioned?

Again, Steve understands what I am saying. [xx(][:)]

Let's just hope that they are ventilated.[xx(][;)]

They couldn't be any worse than the old style toilets on passenger cars. I talking about the ones with the trap door on the bottom of the bowl that open directly to the track. You know, the kind you don't want to flush in the station. Sit on one with a loose door, and the breeze can be very disconcerting.[swg]

[FJ and G]

Amtrak discovered that "in one case, a toilet door lock was broken, leaving passengers trapped inside."

Why more than 1 passenger was in the bathroom is beyond me. If you don't believe this, got it from Amtrak report (last paragraph on this page): http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/rail/information/report_19.cfm

Also, check out this CNN report of a man who got his arm stuck in a train toilet:
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/ptech/10/31/offbeat.mobile.toilet.reut/

[mackb4]

All class 1 railroads have toilets on their road engines.They are located in the nose and most are vaccum flushed using about 35psi of air from the engine.Some toilets are of a "honeycomb"design and are pumped by hand like in some rv's.Engines like mp15's and "buttheads" that I've been on do not have room for a toilet.Up till the late 1990's the NS had simple toilet basin urinals flushed out on the ground by water in a storage tank.I can remember in the winter they would freeze up.That was all before the NS installed AC units on their engines.They would smell bad anytime of the year ![xx(]

[AntonioFP45]

Guys, great info! This is one of those areas that, likely, a lot of us don't really ponder. Yet, it sure is good to know!

From what I understand, passenger train toilets were serviced at terminals. I had assumed that diesel locomotives had their toilets flushed out at locomotive fuel/servicing facilities, just like long distance buses. When I drove for Gray Line, I remember that service attendents would pour a pleasant smelling, concnetrated liquid that would keep the bathroom from accumulating foul odors from waste.

All the years I spent railfanning, it never occured to me that there might have been some human "fertilizer" on mainlines. "Yeccchhh!"

Makes me wonder about the track repair crews that worked during WWII up until the 1980s! I'm certain now some of these guys can tell some stories that "we would not want to know about".

It is sad to hear that many railroad crews today in modern locomotives still must tolerate filthy toilets, due to railroad cutbacks in maintenance services.

[tsgtbob]

QUOTE: Originally posted by brianel027

I was curious about the MP-15 diesel since I owned several K-Line ones, so I did some homework about the real version. The MP-15 was intended to take the place of GP-9's and might have been more successful except for one small reason. Changing railroad regulations required any locomotive going from state to state to have an on-board toilet, which the MP-15 did not.

That facility in the short hood was a big part of the reason that EMD designed the GP-15.
Most crews avoid using the retention toilets in locomotives, the smell has a tendancy to leak into the cab, making for an unpleasant trip.
I have seen crewmembers standing on the long hood walkway , shall we say feeding the Kudzu, while railfanning. The one time it was a real shame, as the Kudzu watering was being done from a GP-40X (rare beast, cross a GP-40 with SD-45) Which I did not have a good broadside of at that time. For obvious reasons, I didn't take it that day!