Bathroom Sewage On Equipment

Where do they dispose of the bathroom sewage that is on some of the train couches?

What do you mean? Haven't you noticed the piles of bile on the tracks every so many feet?

I believe Amtrak's Slumbercoaches (retired in 1995) were the last to have the "direct-dump" toliets.

Track dump at 80mph going over a river trestle......messy. And when there was a Congressman fishing under the trestle, it lead to the end of 'track dump toilets' on passenger trains.

Anytime you see a wet floor in an MBB, you HOPE it's a roof leak. :-/

Nevermind. I misunderstood the use of the term "couches" in the first post and was going to make a comment about CR passengers

Gee, I thought it possible this thread was leading toward an innovative proposal to eliminate the MBTA deficit.

octr202 wrote:Anytime you see a wet floor in an MBB, you HOPE it's a roof leak. :-/

The floors of the MBB's are so worn that it just drains right through anyway.

This must be one of the more interesting questions I've seen.

How much longer will we have the MBBs anyway? Any plans to get enough new lavatory equipped coaches to replace them?

Well, before we get too far off the topic at hand... From what I recall when I went on the BET tour, the coach's waste compartments are cleaned out when the bring in the engines (along with their consist) for refueling. Which is roughly every 1.5 days as I recall. Perhaps EGE would remember better than I do. I couldn't tell ya' how they get it out (plug a hose in the bottom of the basin and let 'er flow?), nor if it just goes right into a regular sewer connection.

To the tune of Humoresque:

Passengers will please refrain
From flushing toilets when the train
Is standing at the station . .

I love u

At BET and Southampton yard there are cleaners whose job it is to drain the holding tanks during what's called a 'turn clean' (preparing a train for the next rush hour). They have a little golf cart like vehicle with a tank on the back to haul it away. At the outer layover terminals an outside company hooks their trucks up to the bathroom cars and drains the tanks.

Fred Rabin wrote:To the tune of Humoresque:

Passengers will please refrain
From flushing toilets when the train
Is standing at the station . .

I love u

.. We encourage constipation
While the train is at the station
When the train gets going so can you.

:D

CRail wrote:At BET and Southampton yard there are cleaners whose job it is to drain the holding tanks during what's called a 'turn clean' (preparing a train for the next rush hour). They have a little golf cart like vehicle with a tank on the back to haul it away. At the outer layover terminals an outside company hooks their trucks up to the bathroom cars and drains the tanks.

That pretty much sums it up. The S&I tracks inside BET and I assume at Southampton St. S&I, there are direct hook ups to empty the holding tanks into the city sewer system.