I’m new to “Trains”. A question that I have always had is where do engineer’s sleep and how do the use the bathroom. Do locomotives have bunks and bathroom facilities? I know that Cabooses had them.
Locomotives in road service are equipped with toilets. Those forum members who are engineers or conductors can expound further on this topic. Bunks have never been part of a locomotive’s equipment.
I think they go to hotels and motels - both of which have bathrooms and bunks!
Not exactly bathrooms, but most road locos have toilets, or in some cases just a seat with a hole so you can xxxx in a bag. They are in the noses in most cases but were behind the cab on older GEs and in the engine room in early streamliners.
Train crews don’t operate like trucks. Crews on the road typicaly start at there home terminal when they are called and work a particular route to the away terminal where they rest and wait for there call for a train headded back to it’s home terminal. At the away terminal the railroad supplys houseing either in a motel or sometimes in a company dorm. By law a train crew can not work more then 12 hours. If the 12 hours is up the train gets tied down and a “dog catch crew” is called. The expired crew will wait for a ride, be it in a carry all (crew transport van) or a deadhead ride on a train (off duty, nt working).
Some trains like locals and switch jobs have regular hours. These jobs are usualy held by the crews with the most seniority.
Oh, and welcome to the forum
No bags, bags are in the departed past.
Hope this doesn’t stir up the old “load up two crews and run them across country” topic again!
So whaddya do? Hang it out the window.[:0]
No NS just had to put real life honest to goodness chemical toilets in their motors now.
The only locomotive that comes to my mind is a GE BQ23-7.
Supposedly had extra space for crew;seems it would have been
very similar to a semi cab,with “sleeper” attached.
No, not even the BQ23-7 had bunks - the extra space in the “quarters” cab (what the “Q” stood for) was for a desk for the conductor - as I understand it, these engines were built during an earlier attempt to eliminate cabooses from trains, during a period when three and four man crews were still the norm.
Jim
Ottawa
At one time, and I don’t know if it still happens or not, but the stuff would land inbetween the rails.
…I seem to remember chatter of 5 man crews…Was this a reality in the past…? If so I suppose: Engineer…Fireman…Conductor…2 Brakemen…
So I guess they don’t have jacuzzis in them either. Bummer.
The toliets in a road engine are nothing to write home about either. [:(] Some railroads opt for a sink in the bathroom, some don’t. The sink will usually fold down for use then fold back up when not in use.
I don’t know if the website CSXSucks.com is still around or not. That website did have some photos of the toliets in locomotives.
As I have said, these toliets are nothing to write home about or be proud of, they serve the basic need. There are basically 3 kinds in use today. One is a chemical toliet, another is a vacuum toliet (very loud too), and last we have a microphor (spelling not correct) toliet.
Many crews go out of their way to avoid using them. One guy remarked to me one day that he had been employeed by the railroad for over 20 some years and had never used one yet. [;)]
…From some of the descriptions I’ve seen and heard of them, I’d do some serious planning of not using them either…I’ve wondered about the location of them {since they are so bad}, and the crew cab is right back of them…What about the odor getting in there…?
they have bathrooms but the older engines are bad a bucket that sucks.
Don’t they have a mirror in some of them? I know Amtrak’s P40’s did.
Perhaps you are all too young but in the days of cabeese they did use bunks on occasion built into the caboose. However the answer is correct never in the engine.
The mirror was there for safety, to keep the user of the dumper from opening the door into some one else’s way. Since most Amtrak trains have only the (a single) Engineer up front, the “facilities” on the locomotive are only used at stops where there are no" facilities" in/at the station. As others have pointed out, the vast majority of engineers would rather go into the station at a stop and use the facilities inside, thank you very much.
what about steam locomotives