Hi Rich, your shop looks so much like my brother-in-laws place in Pittsburgh, but I guess they all look alike.
We actually call them EVac's and they are being phased out. They are going back to the pumper toilet. I don't know who the manufacture are Evac's and pumper toilets, that is pipe fitter work.
No I'm talking about that big 16 cylinder device behind the cab, that converts diesel fuel into noise :funny: That is unless you are talking about a EVO, then it's a 12 cylinder noise maker :funny:
Who is your brother-in-law? That photo was taken in our roundhouse, which is now gone We have a new modern engine house, the lunch room is very nice and the locker room is air conditioned, but....
The Microphor toilet were terrible. The immersion water tank heater was a constant source of low voltage grounds. The heater was prone to failure and in the wintertime the fresh water tank would freeze and expand. The pump type, Prime toilets are simple at least. Randy
Yes, They even tried adding Sagar Portable Toilet Deodorizer / Antifreeze to the evac toilets to keep them from freezing. Unfortunitly the ones that still had working heater created a new issue, the crews complained of the smell when the sagar was heated. So all of the evac's were flushed out and they went back to using plain old water. There is the cost issue as well, evac's are $3,000 plus and a pumper is $300. Rich S.
And a famous NS plastic bag was 4 cents. I guess that's the ultimate in low cost and simplicity. Randy
Yeah I hear you. Of course what to do with the plastic bag when you are done :funny: I can't believe they actually welded circular rings on the floor to stretch the bags over, WOW. And people thought the toilets that dumped out onto the tracks were bad.
I think it was a game on the NS to hurl the full plastic bags and get them snagged on the code line wires along the tracks. I made the mistake of getting close to find out what was tangled up in the wires. Musta been a few hundred of them. Bags of turds baking in the summer sun.. Randy
This is not the first time I've heard these stories. Thankfully we've always had a potty law, so we never have to endure that none sense. I can't remember for sure, but I think that whole plastic bag idea started on the Southern. Your profile says you started on the Milwaukee, what division? Rich S.
Did you get a chance to work around any of the EMD SDL39? The Milwaukee Road was the only railroad to have this unique locomotive. A turbo charged 12 cylinder placed in a GP38 carbody, and then that carbody was placed on C-C trucks to make a six axle locomotive. Rich S.
Hi Rich, Sorry I haven’t been on for a while and didn’t notice you question. I don’t know if my brother-in-law would like me posting his name, but if that is a round house then that’s not the same place. It didn't look like a modern building when I was there, but I was just so fascinated by the Locos and what was going on that I didn't really pay much attention to the building I haven’t been near Pittsburgh in years and I can’t remember exactly where he worked when he retired. I just know it was on the south side of the Monongahela. He worked all around Pittsburgh and actually started his career at Penn (Union) Station downtown. My cousin also worked there as a Dispatcher when it was Penn Central.
