Nostalgia & History > On the NP, no UP, the Restrooms will be locked!

A ritual on the Northern Pacific trains traveling between Ellensburg and Seattle was the locking of the public restrooms and hanging signs over the toilets in the sleeping cars, to protect the non-retention toilets from being flushed while in the Tacoma Green River watershed. This continued into Amtrak days with the Empire Builder when it was routed over Stampede Pass.
 
1. Oldie placard from the 50's when there was a Spokane-Seattle express. "For a distance of 23 miles between Kanaskat, Washington and Lester, Washington, you are in the Green River Watershed, the source of the city of Tacoma’s water supply. Trains 25 and 26 (North Coast Limited) trains 1 and 2 (Main Streeter), and trains 5 and 6 (Seattle-Spokane Express)."
 
2. An Amtrak era placard. "Please, for a distance of 23 miles our train will be traveling through land which provides water for the metropolitan area of Tacoma. Your cooperation is requested in preventing the depositing of anything in the watershed which might cause pollution. Restrooms will be locked for approximately 40 minutes."
 
3. The focus of all this attention? A traditional non-retention toilet that dumped on the tracks!
 

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I recall traveling on Amtrak out of LA in the early 1970s, when they were using the equipment inherited from the railroads. The restrooms were locked within the Los Angeles city limits. 

I remember riding on the rear platform of a private car back in the eighties- one of the party asked, "What is that refreshing breeze coming from under the train I feel from time to time"? After a pause, another in the party answered, "That's a toilet being flushed"!  Ewwwww... 

We called them "Tie Counters".

It encouraged safety - you NEVER stood close to a
passenger train !

NKP715 Wrote:
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> It encouraged safety - you NEVER stood close to a
> passenger train !

you got that right ... working on the NEC before the retention systems, some unsuspecting soul using the head on the train would flush and that pleasant aroma coupled with spray the waste would fly out from under the train on both sides and if an employee wasn't alert and/or new, they would get that waste spray off the train like a skunk and the smell would linger just like it too ...

it was also used as a life lesson teaching tool for those new hire know-it-alls who didn't want to listen when an old head tried to teach them something, s, when a toilet was dumped, the spray was clearly visible and everyone would stand at a spot until the last minute, then everyone would back away, like Moe and Larry leaving Curly in the front and the unsuspecting wise ass would get a treat as all of the others would get a good laugh ...



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/05/15 11:30 by Out_Of_Service.

A similar "The head will be secured" (as our seagoing friends would say) rule applied on the Southern Pacific San Joaquin trains when going through the northern part of the San Fernando Valley north of Burbank CA.  A major Los Angeles Dept. of Water & Power reservoir was downhill from the SP tracks.

One of the "oral traditions" among Southern California traction fans is the story of an excursion on Pacific Electric business car 1299, which has a restroom near the middle of the car.  Knowing that the days were numbered for rail service to the Hollywood area, a group chartered 1229 for a trip that included running along Hollywood Blvd.  A passenger had to "answer the call of nature" rather suddenly and used the "hopper".  Forgetting the basic facts of railway plumbing, he  stepped on the pedal, and left a deposit in the middle of the street.  Ooops!

Modern day passenger cars, and even retrofitted classic heavyweights don't have this possibility, but on Superliner sleepers the "gray water" from the downstairs shower still empties onto the tracks.  It's a strange sensation to be becoming all "clean and tidy like Joxer the Mighty" and getting rid of the "bag of dirty sweat socks" feeling while the BNSF main line goes zipping past the drain hole between your feet.

Photos: PE 1299 at Orange Empire Ry. Museum.  Closeup shows the 4" pipe that has the "commode" at the upper end, on the right side of the photo, next to the air compressor.

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There is an embellished story I heard about an inspection of the bridge across from St. Louis. The non-railroad inspectors were horrified when they got sprayed.  Railroad man reached down and wiped some of the spray and tasted it.  Nothing to worry about just mmmm water from the diner.

As somebody who does assessments of water quality issues for a living, I have to say this restriction is ridiculous. If every single person on the train took a dump in that 23 mile stretch, it's likely that there would be no detectable change in water quality at all. How many elk live in that watershed?  How many moose, pooping directly into the water?

human poop, especially applied to the ballast in what amounts to a trickling filter, would be irrelevant over a large watershed like this. 

 

As a 12 yr old on the Southwest Limited in 1976 I was quite amused at being able to see the tracks wooshing by when I flushed the toilet. Great fun for a kid!

Allen Greer
Frontier Motel & Cafe, Truxton, AZ