Any locomotive engineers use one of these recirculating toilets?

[kerry]

http://www.dayton-phoenix.com/productCategoryDetail.php?categoryId=76

Thinking about putting one in my camper and am looking for an opinion on how they work?
I had a Thetford Electra Magic recirculating toilet in my Travco motorhome and liked it. I prefer a non-electric version and this i s the only one I can find.

[kerry]

Have I found a topic--locomotive crew ****ters--on which there is no expertise here?

[TheDon]

how does it work?

[tbomachines]

My toilet tends to recirculate sometimes but thats only after subjected to extreme punishment. Plunger solves it

[kerry]

Originally Posted by TheDon

how does it work?

That's what I'd like to know. I had a Thetford Electra-Magic. It worked by recirculating the liquids via an electric pump to flush the toilet. Used much less water than the typical RV toilet. It took a couple of gallons to charge it. It also held a lot of waste. Had a gate valve on the bottom to dump it. I assume this one is similar but doesn't require electricity. Thetford used to make a manual version at one time. They marketed it as a barn or garage toilet. No longer.

[Chas H]

I worked for the Adirondack Railroad during the 1980 winter Olympics. The railroad passenger cars emptied the toilets onto the tracks, except when it was 10 or 20 below zero. At that temperature the efluent froze in a glacier that oozed out from under the car-right next to the entrance stairs. The locomotive had no toilet IIRC.

[kerry]

Found another mfg: http://www.railroadtoilets.com/

Not as nice as the ones in the original link. I saw one once on Ebay. I thought it was a Thetford but in looking at these, I'm pretty sure it was one of these. Would make a decent garage or barn toilet as long as it was high enough to use one of those mobile RV dump tanks to empty it.

[Emmerich]

Dumb question maybe: is it like an airplane where it dumps to a tank that must be emptied later?

[kerry]

Originally Posted by Emmerich

Dumb question maybe: is it like an airplane where it dumps to a tank that must be emptied later?

Yes, but the tank is integral to the toilet. So, the toilet itself is a storage device. That's one of the reasons why they're nice in small RV's--they add holding capacity. They also use much less water than a standard RV toilet. Airplane toilets evolved from railroad toilets I think.

[TX76513]

This is a crappy thread

[strelnik]

Originally Posted by kerry

Yes, but the tank is integral to the toilet. So, the toilet itself is a storage device. That's one of the reasons why they're nice in small RV's--they add holding capacity. They also use much less water than a standard RV toilet. Airplane toilets evolved from railroad toilets I think.

Am curious, how much do one of these things cost?

[kerry]

Originally Posted by strelnik

Am curious, how much do one of these things cost?

I was thinking of you and your workshop. I've got an e-mail in to the Dayton-Phoenix people. I suspect the railroadtoilets.com versions are cheaper.

[aTOMic]

From www.sportsmansguide.com
which also sells this which I need for my 7-year-old to improve his nighttime aim (or at least remind him to put the friggin' seat UP!)!

[kerry]

The railroadtoilets.com model 199000 sells for $975 and it weighs 51 lbs.