M7 bathrooms

[point88]

I brought this up in the old forum, but I think some of thought I was crazy.
The bathrooms in these things are horrible. They are always out of order and leaking waste into the "B" end of the car. I also heard that some have exploded waste from the bowl when you flush them. Now is this a new urban myth or has this really happened to some unfortunate souls. And is the railroad and Bombardier leaning the manufactures of these things. Anyone have any insight please???

[DutchRailnut]

I believe we got cars mixed up here. a M7 has waste stored under the car and the toilet is located in middle of car. a M1/3 has toilet at B end and holds the waste in the comode. the bleu pills give it a very sweet sickening smell. they usually have blue stained floor covering near the toiler/B end doors.

[point88]

I should have clafified myself better. The bathroom in the M7's are in the "B" car in front of the "L2" door. The waste leaks usally toward the "B" end. The bathrooms in the M7's are having more problems than the M1/M3's lately. Am I the only conductor calling "204" about these things. Please some answers! And I do know the difference between a M7 and M1/M3.

[DutchRailnut]

Sounds like someone is not servicing the bathrooms right.
In M1/M3 the bowl has to be filled with fresh water and a tablet after dumping.
in A M7 I believe the tank in ceiling gets filled but nothing gets put in bowl , either they are not pumping them right or they put fresh water in Bowl and fill wast tank before use.

[Nasadowsk]

Tank in the ceiling?!?!?!

Great, another thing 'up there' to break and leak on everyone. As if the A/C drips weren't bad enough....

[DutchRailnut]

nothing new every old standard coach/bombardier/rdc/spv/amfleet has had those since introduction of water out of a tap on trains

[N340SG]

The M-7 toilets have not been too good so far.
They are similar to the toilets in the overhauled M-1s.
So, be governed by the track record of those.
We had 3 toilets out of 5 out of service on an M-7 consist one day last week. We all hope and trust that the problems will be rectified while under warranty.

The toilet wastewater tank is in fact inside the car in the M-7, as well as in the older equipment. You guys with dream keys, open the service door between the bathroom and the seats adjacent to the bathroom. You'll see a whole bunch of piping and valves. Behind that, you'll see a large tank. That's the toilet wastewater tank. It's pretty well-sealed, at least for now.
The toilet waste gets vacuumed up from the bottom of the bowl and enters the top of the tank. (If you really care, you can visually follow the pipe route as described above. It's the Stainless Steel pipe.)
The smaller tank underneath the car is the so-called "Gray Water Tank". That is for wastewater from the sink. It has a heater on it for wintertime.

I'm pretty sure they want to put these toilets in the M-3s, as part of the overhaul. So, the problems really need to be ironed out.

From what I've heard, they want to get away from the blue water systems.

[bluebelly]

To describe the M7 bathrooms as bad is a understatment. You say 3 out of 5 bad on one train? How about 5 out of 5. Bad enough that they don't work, but they also overflow covering half the car. They are much worse the the old bluewater bathrooms,and the C3 bathrooms are much better. If they are going to take up 9 seats with a bathroom the least they can do is make them work.

[howardr142]

I assume the wastewater from the toilet doesn't freeze in clold weather due to baterica activity?

[N340SG]

howardr42,

No, sir. The wastewater tanks on all our EMU equipment are inside the car. As long as the HVAC is operational, the tank will never freeze. They do have thermostatically controlled relief valves, just in case.
Any tank that is outside the car will have a heater attached.


Bluebelly,

You beat my record for M-7 bathrooms out of order in one consist. Somehow, I'm not envious, however.
Anybody got 6 for 6 yet?

Tom

[N340SG]

Bluebelly,

Agreed about the bluewater systems. They are much simpler.
When actually serviced on a regular basis, they really are not that bad.
I would only have liked to see a runoff/overflow pan installed under the bathroom, so the blue water doesn't get into my electrical junction box below the bathroom. It is no fun going in there!!

Tom

[N340SG]

This subject finally got some attention. Newsday, July 5, article http://www.newsday.com/mynews/ny-lilirr ... 6955.story
about M-7 bathroom woes.
According to the article, Bombardier and the vendor are beginning retrofits to correct the problems. Since the cars are under warranty, there is supposed to be no cost to the LIRR.