SEPTA train bathrooms

SubwayTim wrote:I've ridden on NJT's Arrow III's going to/from New York City on several occasions when I couldn't afford Amtrak, and those brown "leather-look" walkover seats were not the most comfortable seats I've sat in.

Those particular seats probably have not been re-stuffed since they were new in the 1993-1996 rebuilding. The Comet IIm and IV's have the same seats, just different color coverings... and the IV's are getting a bit ratty too sometimes.

Silverliner II wrote:

SubwayTim wrote:I've ridden on NJT's Arrow III's going to/from New York City on several occasions when I couldn't afford Amtrak, and those brown "leather-look" walkover seats were not the most comfortable seats I've sat in.

Those particular seats probably have not been re-stuffed since they were new in the 1993-1996 rebuilding. The Comet IIm and IV's have the same seats, just different color coverings... and the IV's are getting a bit ratty too sometimes.

Aren't some of the Comets with those seats now running on the Atlantic City Line?

SubwayTim wrote:Aren't some of the Comets with those seats now running on the Atlantic City Line?

Yep. Usually solid Comet IV trains mainly, with an occasional IIm tossed into the consist. Speaking of the Atlantic City Line, this wandered in yesterday while I was touring the 40th Anniversary display train on Track 1 at 30th Street. Of course, my camera was handy....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VCng9sHKYs

As it happened, the cab car... the only restroom on the train... was closed to passengers and the seats flipped for the shore-bound trip. I only noticed people disembarking from the 2nd and 3rd cars.

rbreslow wrote:Hey sorry if I'm going off topic but the silverliner II's and III's both had bathrooms I try to get a peak inside of them every time I ride one but the conductor always shoos me away. What's in em now?

The Reading Silverliner IIs did not have lavatories.

BuddCar711 wrote:

rbreslow wrote:Hey sorry if I'm going off topic but the silverliner II's and III's both had bathrooms I try to get a peak inside of them every time I ride one but the conductor always shoos me away. What's in em now?

The Reading Silverliner IIs did not have lavatories.

Really? What did they put there.

rbreslow wrote:

BuddCar711 wrote:

rbreslow wrote:Hey sorry if I'm going off topic but the silverliner II's and III's both had bathrooms I try to get a peak inside of them every time I ride one but the conductor always shoos me away. What's in em now?

The Reading Silverliner IIs did not have lavatories.

Really? What did they put there.

A bench seat is in that spot on the Reading Silverliner II's.

A bench seat is in that spot on the Reading Silverliner II's.[/quote]

Ah I think I have seen those.

Where are these reclining seats on NJT trains? I think not even the parlor cars from 30 years ago had them.

BuddCar711 wrote:The Reading Silverliner IIs did not have lavatories.

Why am I not surprised by this? No Silverliner III's for Reading, and now I learn that there were no bathrooms on their Silverliner IIs.

Why do most Silverliner V runs have four-digit numbers that start with 9? Yes, the bias continues even today.

rslitman wrote:Why do most Silverliner V runs have four-digit numbers that start with 9? Yes, the bias continues even today.

The next time septa changes their train numbering system around, they will make all trains that start/end through Roberts/WECS be designated by number 0xxx, therefore there will be no bias. (9xxx is the code for Roberts/WECS btw)

The PRR SL-IIs from 201-219 have(had) toilets which have been turned into storage areas for destination signs and the crews bags. Ditto for the non-airport SL-IIIs (220-239 series). The 250-269 series have the longitudinal seat (where the fire started on 257) on the B end with a lift off cushion for stowage ala the earlier group. The Reading SL-IIs never had the toilets. BTW the Blue cars had toilets which dumped directly onto the A end (motor) truck! Thank God they stopped using them before I had to work on them!

ex Budd man wrote:The PRR SL-IIs from 201-219 have(had) toilets which have been turned into storage areas for destination signs and the crews bags. Ditto for the non-airport SL-IIIs (220-239 series). The 250-269 series have the longitudinal seat (where the fire started on 257) on the B end with a lift off cushion for stowage ala the earlier group. The Reading SL-IIs never had the toilets. BTW the Blue cars had toilets which dumped directly onto the A end (motor) truck! Thank God they stopped using them before I had to work on them!

Speaking of 201.... last time I was on that car, I noticed that it must have had its bathroom removed at some point (I guess when it was damaged from the fire that destroyed 210??) .... there are two rows of seats instead of a longitudinal bench at the F end of the car where the bathroom used to be. I'd made note of that car on another post making mention that on the F end exterior engineer's side from the cab to the end of the first window, the body appears canted slightly upward. Inside, the interior paneling is a slightly different color in the same area.

ex Budd man wrote:BTW the Blue cars had toilets which dumped directly onto the A end (motor) truck! Thank God they stopped using them before I had to work on them!

I hadn't known that the Blueliners' dry hoppers did that. Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase when someone says, "This railroad stinks!"

rslitman wrote:

BuddCar711 wrote:The Reading Silverliner IIs did not have lavatories.

Why am I not surprised by this? No Silverliner III's for Reading, and now I learn that there were no bathrooms on their Silverliner IIs.

Why do most Silverliner V runs have four-digit numbers that start with 9? Yes, the bias continues even today.

I'd like to apologize to everyone, especially Scotty269 and nomis, for spouting off without thinking about the reason for some of these differences.

I wasn't in the Philadelphia area during the Reading and Pennsylvania days. I only knew the Reading name from the Monopoly game board. The Pennsylvania Railroad, of course, was also on this board, too. I knew the Pennsylvania Railroad name, as well as a third Monopoly board railroad, the B&O, because they both operated in the Washington, DC, area, where I grew up. (I don't know much about the fourth Monopoly board railroad, the Short Line, although I took a bus with the Short Line or Short Lines name from Port Authority in NYC to upstate NY once or twice in the 1970s and wondered if this was the same company.)

Just the fact that the Pennsylvania Railroad reached Washington, while the Reading Railroad didn't, should tell me something about the relative success of these two lines, as well as their different needs. I don't know if the Silverliner IIs and IIIs that are still running today ever were in service to such Pennsylvania Railroad destinations as Washington, Harrisburg, and New York City, but if they were, that certainly goes a long way in explaining why they had to be equipped with bathrooms. Even if these particular cars weren't, it may have just been standard operating procedure for the Pennsylvania Railroad to have bathrooms on all of their cars.

And if they did use the Silverliners well beyond where SEPTA runs today, that may also explain why they had to order the Silverliner IIIs later in the 1960s, while Reading stood pat with their collection of IIs.

rslitman wrote:I wasn't in the Philadelphia area during the Reading and Pennsylvania days. I only knew the Reading name from the Monopoly game board. The Pennsylvania Railroad, of course, was also on this board, too. I knew the Pennsylvania Railroad name, as well as a third Monopoly board railroad, the B&O, because they both operated in the Washington, DC, area, where I grew up. (I don't know much about the fourth Monopoly board railroad, the Short Line, although I took a bus with the Short Line or Short Lines name from Port Authority in NYC to upstate NY once or twice in the 1970s and wondered if this was the same company.)

The Monopoly game Short Line was the Shore Fast Line, an interurban that connected Atlantic City with Ocean City.