Mr Bunt wrote:
Another relevant point is that ROSCOs have wised up to the cascading game, so modern rolling stock is modular and can easily be modified to suit subsequent uses/users - case in point: all of SWT's Desiros have a dropped roof section on one car to accommodate conversion to overhead electrification in the future if a subsquent user requires it. Compared with converting a unit from third rail to overhead, sticking a lav or two into a new train to meet changed operating cirumstances therefore isn't exactly rocket science - in fact you could say it's a piece of p*** .
But is it? Wouldn't NR insist on 'added toilets' being of the retention type in these health conscious days? That would involve tanks, pipework, release valves and all kinds of fittings.
I seem to recall that the Class 321 EMUs were the last vehicles built in the UK with non-retention toilets and one Malcolm Young, Bletchley driver and knowledgable on American matters, telling us that it had been illegal to discharge effluent onto the track there since the 1930s due to it being blamed on an outbreak of typhus. I am no friend of Network Rail but am a friend of their staff - anyone who has had a dose of what comes out when the chain is flushed, innocently stood in a 'position of safety', will know what I mean. We aren't supposed to deposit sh*te on our highways, how come it's still ok to do it on the ballast?
hq1hitchin wrote:We aren't supposed to deposit sh*te on our highways, how come it's still ok to do it on the ballast?
The scene: Ware station, Hertford East Branch, Monday 20 September 2010 and Mr Bunt is waiting for an Up train.
The 14:42 from Liverpool Street consisting of a couple of 317s (therefore with toilets) pulls in, passengers board and alight then the train departs. On the platform right opposite the Down starter a small plastic lemonade bottle is seen to have appeared, laying on it's side on an otherwise spotlessly clean station with the cap leaking as if it's been dropped there from a height.
Closer visual examination shows it appears to be almost full of urine. How co-incidental that it's final resting place should be right beside the normal stopping point of the driver's cab
Any comments on that one Mr Crow? Surely it wasn't one of your drivers was it Bob?
Without lowering the tone of the L.N.E.R. forum any lower reminds me when as a secondman of a night back in '75 that i nearly ended up as 'brown bread' when standing in the back cab of an open doorway of a Brush type 2 (at speed!) coming up the fast line taking an 'emergency PNB' when passing ARLESEY s/box the loco and train rode the S-curve were the loco 'jolted suddenly' and i nearly when out the open door but for the (very) quick reaction of grabbing the doorway of the loco!. Happy days...?
On the subject of Southern Toilets, I remember travelling from Southampton (or Salisbury) to Waterloo a few years ago on a train with a toilet for the disabled - full of yellow rails and handles and no sign of how to flush it. Then I noticed a foot pedal. Now a couple of weeks earlier I had travelled on a Swiss train where the toilet is flushed with a foot pedal (the old DB stock also had foot pedals). So I trod on it, and the alarm went off - disabled person in distress! I must say the guard was there in no time... just when I wanted to slip out without being noticed!
I would say that the gentle folk living in the NE,NW and SW areas of England, would love to swop there class 142 pacers with toilets for anything with or without toilets so long as it has bogies
I would say that the gentle folk living in the NE,NW and SW areas of England, would love to swop there class 142 pacers with toilets for anything with or without toilets so long as it has bogies manna
Personnally 142 on local trips and on CWR aren't a problem for me.
But put them on jointed track then they live up to their nickname of "Bounceboxes"
They also destroy jointed track due to the impact load on joints of the single axle.
I would say that the gentle folk living in the NE,NW and SW areas of England, would love to swop there class 142 pacers with toilets for anything with or without toilets so long as it has bogies
manna
I certainly would. I'd sooner have to cross my legs for a few minutes than end up with motion sickness. Though I second Bryan's comment about the difference between their performance on CWR and jointed track.
Another example of the abject, dismal failure, of rail privatisation; and an insight into the robber barons who attempt to run, our destroyed, discredited railways today.............Private companies, propped up by the tax payer.....WHAT IS THAT ABOUT FOLKS? Never mind if you need to attend to a call of nature? This must contravene some Human Rights law? I bet even detained terrorists can use a loo after an hour..?
This type of free market, 'do what you want as long as the share holders are happy' gets my goat!..................Governments again, SAY............ and......... DO.............. NOTHING to oppose Southern fom removing toilets!!!!!!!!!!!!
Apologies for the rant Ladies and Gents, NO LOOS? NO WAY....Maybe, one day, we will have a political party who will re-nationalise .....(And reintroduce Deltic)
Hi Gent's.................On the subject of loo's on trains, and not flushing at the station.... As a second man,I remember coupling up one day at Cambridge, when the contents of the toilet flushed by my feet............'put me right of my fish and chip's.Anyone had a similiar situation, or worse? Keep the good memories coming guys..........We saw the best, and we experienced the last of the great days of British Rail................For all it's faults................The old professionals out weighed them
Marx
Hi Micky,Thanks for the memories, and info.........I am sure we would have crossed paths in the past?? Manna, we definiteley have..................KX forever............
marx
I would say that we've probably tripped over each other in the KX messroom. Yes one of the drawbacks of having to uncouple etc at Cambridge was having to watch out where you put your feet, seeing that half of these jobs were when it was dark, pity we did'nt get 'Dirty money' like the shunters.
manna
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