Where does the toilet waste go on a train???

Question

Where does the toilet waste go on a train???

Answer 1

Into a holding tank just like it does on an airplane for later dumping.

Answer 2

Same place as the train

Answer 3

into a sealed medal container and when the train sometime during a 24 hour cycle goes for refuelling or cleaning the waste is pumped out into a sewer disposal outlet and joins the sewage system to the sewage works.

Answer 4

If you are in an old train, it falls on the track. In modern trains they have a closed suction system with a tank, like airplanes do.

Which type it is you can easily recognize: when you are asked not to use the toilet while the train is waiting in a station it must be the old system. If that interdiction is missing, you are in a train with the modern system.

Answer 5

south african trains it falls directly onto the track bed (ballast)

Answer 6

The toilet waste goes into a holding tank onboard the train, and it then gets emptied at the end of the day when it goes back to the Depot, or 'Shed'.

Answer 7

...Just be glad its not the same way in planes...

Answer 8

on most UK trains it gets flushed direct onto the track.

Answer 9

I am a train enthusiast, and i have learned that the train industry has come up with a complex system to deal with that problem.  The suction system used when the toilet is flushed actually transports the waste to the engine.  They are now using that to help power the train (most of the power is still form the traditional products in originally used).  This system has many benefits however, one is that instead of having the bacterias byproduct let out on the tracks, it use burned away.  This is much safer for the environment, because biofromines (which are formed by decomposing f***s) are not let into the atmosphere!

Answer 10

In the UK, it goes onto the tracks.  That's why they say don't flush the toilets on the station.

Answer 11

Un hygienically on the track

Answer 12

it goes into a big holding tank

this was not always the case. At one time, passengers were prohibited from using the toilet when the train was standing at a station.

Answer 13

The section gang believes it is stored, and then dumped as it passes the gang standing aside,  they just can't figure how the waste system knows they're there!!

Answer 14

It goes from the crack to the track.......I bet yo thought that brown coloring of the cross ties was Crusoe, didn't you, --well ?

Answer 15

on the track

Answer 16

It goes into a holding tank similar to a septic tank. After the run it is drained out by a sumpsucker and sent to wherever the guys who drive sumpsucker trucks go with it.

Answer 17

I think it goes into the food in the dining car judging by the cr4p I had last week.  I used to think it went onto the rails, that's why the lights don't come on when you're in the station.

Answer 18

It goes into a septic tank under the train.

Then when the journey is over, it is sold to KFC and they use it as their 'special coating' for the chicken....Tastes like that anyway!

P.S....All the used toilet paper is recycled and is re-used as the tortilla wraps at Subway.

Mmmmmmm yummy!

Answer 19

As you can see there are conflicting answers to your question. funnily enough they are both right. it used to be part of my job to fill the water tanks on trains.trains made after 1994 have a cess tank like a coach . but trains built earlier than that will generally just dump the waste into the track area. just as a foot note if you look at the heavy discolouring of trains in bad weather or the coloured film on them on drier days the stuff that looks like they have driven through a muddy puddle well it isn't mud it is the waste materials from your trains loo being sucked up and on to the side of your train as it passes over it at speed ..... i kid you not

Answer 20

Have you never read the sign that says "Flush twice...it's a long ways to the kitchen"

  I know when I was a kid and used to walk on the tracks you had to be carefull where you stepped....there was poo on the tracks... but I like to think they have changed that now.

Answer 21

Modern equipment in the US has a holding tank.  The answerer above is quite correct when mentioning backed-up toilets.  It happens often.

Locomotives have retention tanks as well, although the older engines still deposit waste on to the tracks, or are equipped with an electric "incenolet", which has heating coils in the bottom that burns the waste material, as well as chemical toilets.

Depositing waste on the tracks, though crude, is not as much of a threat to health as it would seem.  Keep in mind that the rock ballast is exactly the same as the gravel used in leach lines of residential septic systems.  Be that as it may, it is one more good reason to stay off railroad right of way.

Answer 22

In the case of Britain the situation is as follows: All new trains built since at least the early 90's (and SOME from before then) have retention tanks under the carriage. Older trains tip the waste directly on to the track. Thus, you see notices on some trains asking you not to flush when the train is in a station. The existance or otherwise of such a notice will indicate what sort of toilet that train has. In my experience all new continental European trains also have retention tanks. Cannot speak for anywhere else.

Answer 23

Thrown off onto the tracks, or stored in a small container underneath

Answer 24

If you are traveling on a local train that was built before 1990 then all the waste gets dumped on the track and thats why there are sometimes stickers in the bogs that say plaes dont use the toilet in the station! if you are traveling on a larger intercity train it all goes in to a massive tank  on the bottom of the carrage and gets ''gulped'' when it gets back on the depot. not a nice job i've seen it go wrong many times on the depot! but also having to take the toilet pipe off when its blocked after some plum decideds to try and flush a coke can down the bog on pre 1990 unit isnt much fun either. I've had 1 or 2 closes misses with that.

Answer 25

I cannot speak for passenger car equipment but I can speak from experience on locomotive waste systems.

I can imagine that the passenger cars are equipped similarly to modern locomotives.

For many years, the waste was deposited on the track. Plain, simple, effective, and nasty if you were a track inspector... Or just walking along the tracks.

Later there were several developments in locomotive toilets.

There was an incendiary method of disposal in which the waste was burned off. Kinda scary.



There was the "c**p bag" method in which a toilet frame was installed in the toilet compartment of the locomotive. The crew member would attach a plastic waste bag and when finished with his/her business, would tie it up and place it in a holding box to be emptied later. Unfortunately the crews would often throw these from the cab of the locomotive, where they would end up in peoples yards or hanging from the phone lines and trees along the tracks.

Then came the Bogen dump toilet. This toilet is like a "port-a-potty" in that it uses a chemical/water mix. You just sit on it and take care of business. No moving parts. The thing resembles a white plastic barrel with a toilet seat on top. When the locomotive went in for a servicing every couple of days, it would be dumped. Unfortunately the blue chemical stained the plastic and it was badly prone to sloshing.... not nice...

Next out is the Microphor water toilet. This system utilizes a fresh water flushing type toilet and its waste system utilizes an enzyme to eat away the waste in a "digester tank". The system also utilizes chlorine tablets (like the ones used in a pool) for neutralizing bacteria. Once the waste is digested and the fluid neutralized, it is dumped to the ground as "clean" water.

The problem with microphor is the amount of moving parts in the flush type toilet and the problem associated with maintaining the rest of the system.

Now with the arrival of the new series of locomotives, the dump type toilet is making a comeback.

The new MEI toilets are cleaner, more sanitary and made of stainless steel. They also have a manual pump handle to "flush" the bowl with the chemical/water mix. Its much more friendly to use and work on.

The Microphor, Bogen and MEI toilets are pretty much standard these days. If a locomotive has the c**p bag or burner device it it, it is pretty much a museum piece by now.

Answer 26

In most countries on the track but in some advanced countries its stored for latter dumping but I still wonder what kinda storage will that be. In-short all along the tracks ;)

Answer 27

it goes on the train track. i know cos i work on the railway.

Answer 28

Up until about ten years ago it went on the tracks. Then the Feds decided this was wrong (for alll the right reasons) and now there is a holding tank.

The traditional method of disposing human waste from trains is merely to deposit the waste onto the tracks. This ranges from the toilets being a hole in the floor of the train, to a full flush system (possibly with sterilization). The 'hole in the floor' system where waste is deposited on the track is still in use in many parts of the world, particularly aboard older rolling stock. The principal drawback is that it can be considered crude or unhygienic – it litters railway lines and can produce health risks if the train is passing over a public waterway. Passengers may be discouraged from flushing or using toilets while the train is at a station.[1]. Generally the problem is unavoidable, although there are solutions where toilets are automatically locked when the train pulls into a station.

Chemical retention tanks are usually present aboard newer carriages and railcars in wealthier and more densely populated parts of the world. One issue is that the tanks need to be regularly emptied, usually when being attended at a terminal station, or prolonged stop-over. If a train is required in service again within too short a period, the tanks may not get emptied. In this case, toilets may back up and cause displeasure to passengers (the traditional waste disposal methods do not have this problem). Another point of note is that carriages may have less "in service" time if fitted with chemical retention tanks.

Some trains may also be fitted with composting toilet tanks, which use bacterial action to break down solid and liquid waste before releasing it to the track bed by way of a chlorine sanitizing tank. Microphor manufactures these systems in the USA, and they are in use on many Amtrak trains.

Answer 29

These day its held in a tank on atrain and then pumped out at the end of its jurney into the sewers. On older trains the toilet would flush directly onto the railway line, which is why there is a rule on trains saying do not use the toilet while the train is at a station. Ofcourse this rule was often not adhered to.

I to work on the trains

Answer 30

the dinner car.

Answer 31

The tracks!