Locomotive "facilities"

Yeah, "the rest of the story". Runnin' trains ain't all fun and games with such crappy claustrophobic facilities. Some crews will just wait till they stop at a siding and wizz overboard, if it's not a public location. It's kinda hard to imagine that some railroads waited so long to put any facilities in their long-haul locomotives. I guess I was working for a more progressive railroad (30 years ago) cuz they even had refrigerators as standard equipment in the cab. Which is kinda nice if you're stuck on a train for a 12-hour shift (formerly 16-hour shifts).

In steam locomotive days, the coal pile provided some relief! Don't know how crews on oil-burning railroads fared!

The Chessie System crews in northern Michigan went out of their way to avoid running the L&N units that the road had acquired, principally because none were toilet eqipped. I have to say though, that I'm not too certain the toilet-equipped units were anywhere near comfortable from what I saw. That was a few generations ago...

 

 Well I for one can tell you the older style toilets stunk,and not just figuratively speaking, but for real !

 

 I'm not sure what the older style Southern pre-NS were,but the ones I experienced in 1991 were a fiberglass urinal with a wash basin that always had the nastiest water to wash your hands with.And a dummy toilet to drape a sanitary bag over.You then would place the bag in a bucket for removal at the nearest terminal with mechanical forces.

   

 In the summer they smelled like a poorly serviced Johnny-on-the-spot,and in the winter time they froze up and smelled like a poorly serviced Johnny-on-the-spot

 

Now the pump toilets when they are serviced right ,smell o.k.,but they really get foul when their not.

 

 And same with the vacuum toilets,but they are more convenient.

 

 And Oh by the way,the sanitary bags usually never made it far enough to be properly disposed of ,and that's what eventually spelled the doom for that method .

Before my first westbound trip out if Harrisburg on NS, I was getting a bag of ice for the cooler in the cab. The conductor told me to get a second one. When I asked why, he said that it was "for the crapper". I looked at him oddly and filled another bag. When we got on the train, there was an odor from the toilet. The conductor emptied the bag of ice into it, claiming that it would help with the smell. It did seem to; didn't eliminate the odor completely but made it bearable.