Tissue Paper question

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ScottC4746

OBS Chief
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Jan 11, 2009
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Redondo Beach, CA
There is really no delicate way of putting this, but having just gotten off of the Sunset Sunday and seeing the dismal quality of the tissue paper, would it clog up anything if I brought the real stuff with me next trip.

As I said, sorry about the topic, but I ... well... the quality was not there. :unsure:
 
But Amtrak cars don't have a normal septic system, not even close. A normal system has both a septic tank and a leech field. A normal system uses normal toilets with lots of water used each time you flush.

Amtrak's system uses very little water and a vacuum system instead. It's not a matter of the paper being bio-degradable or anything else like that. It's a matter of can the vacuum pull it through the pipe into the tank. If not, then you have a clogged toilet. This is why a few paper towels thrown into the toilet is almost guaranteed to bad order the toilet. And depending on just where a clog occurs in the pipes, it can take out more than one toilet.

And since the system is already pulling through some potentially large and heavy deposits, adding still more to that load with a heavy toilet paper just increases the odds of a clog and a BO'd toilet.
 
so lets say you have to make a brown deposit and theres not enough paper to wipe with. what do you do. yell out HEY I NEED MORE TOILET PAPER IN HERE. think about we all have had to put up with the never ending wipe.
 
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I've never seen a long distance restroom run out of toilet paper. Not saying that it hasn't happened, but I've never seen it happen. The main reason is that every room has a place for two rolls. So as long as the attendant checks it at least once or twice during a trip, there should never be a situation where you run out.

However, it's always a good idea to check first before sitting down.
 
KISS_ALIVE said:
so lets say you have to make a brown deposit and theres not enough paper to wipe with. what do you do. yell out HEY I NEED MORE TOILET PAPER IN HERE. think about we all have had to put up with the never ending wipe.
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Oh I see where this thred is going. I have already had to pick myself up off the floor from laughing so hard. :lol:
 
ScottC4746 said:
KISS_ALIVE said:
so lets say you have to make a brown deposit and theres not enough paper to wipe with. what do you do. yell out HEY I NEED MORE TOILET PAPER IN HERE. think about we all have had to put up with the never ending wipe.
Click to expand...
Oh I see where this thred is going. I have already had to pick myself up off the floor from laughing so hard. :lol:
Click to expand...
Did you not expect potty jokes?

(Always check for TP before you use the facilities!) :)
 
ScottC4746 said:
KISS_ALIVE said:
so lets say you have to make a brown deposit and theres not enough paper to wipe with. what do you do. yell out HEY I NEED MORE TOILET PAPER IN HERE. think about we all have had to put up with the never ending wipe.
Click to expand...
Oh I see where this thred is going. I have already had to pick myself up off the floor from laughing so hard. :lol:
Click to expand...
Slip in something?
 
ScottC4746 said:
There is really no delicate way of putting this, but having just gotten off of the Sunset Sunday and seeing the dismal quality of the tissue paper, would it clog up anything if I brought the real stuff with me next trip.As I said, sorry about the topic, but I ... well... the quality was not there. :unsure:
Click to expand...
This question has come up before, and I'd like to comment on it, as several points have been made that approach the reason a special toilet tissue paper is necesary. I think it relates directly to the similarity of the holding tank situation on a sailboat and a train.

Regular toilet paper that you'd buy at a grocery store remains as "clumps", and creates a problem at pump-out time. It will disintregate over some time (days), but not very fast. Marine (and I suppose Train) tissue is designed to desintegrate after it's been in the holding tank for a few minutes, thus elimating that pump-out problem.

Moving through the pipes isn't the main concern in the beginning. I'd think that the vacuum system on the train could probably pull a pair of socks through it; but if emptying the holding tank is not that strong (and it probably isn't) there's a problem with getting the car ready for the next set of passengers.

If you really need to carry your own supply of toilet tissue, at least buy at a marine supply store. It does it's designed job quite well, and also accomplishes what the people who empty the holding tank need. And I certainly wouldn't want to be the guy that had that job. :unsure:

And for those of you who have never sailed, there's an unwritten rule --- the person who cloggs the toilet (head) is the person who fixes it. :lol:
 
ThayerATM said:
...Marine (and I suppose Train) tissue is designed to desintegrate ...
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2127860402_18a56bac6e_o.jpg
 
Amtrak's a victim here. The toilet paper Amtrak uses comes from the Federal Prison System. A class-action lawsuit by a group of prisoners found that the use of the paper in the prisons constituted "cruel and unusual punishment" in violation of the eighth amendment of the constitution. Now stuck with tens of thousands of rolls of the offending material, the prison system tried without success to pass it off the the military, and even to the CIA for use in a variation of the "water boarding" technique for interrogations. All efforts failed, until Amtrak took the material in a cost-saving move as required by Congress.

And, yes, I'm kidding (maybe).
 
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PRR 60 said:
Amtrak's a victim here. The toilet paper Amtrak uses comes from the Federal Prison System. A class-action lawsuit by a group of prisoners found that the use of the paper in the prisons constituted "cruel and unusual punishment" in violation of the eighth amendment of the constitution. Now stuck tens of thousands of rolls of the offending material, the prison system tried without success to pass it off the the military, and even to the CIA for use in a variation of the "water boarding" technique for interrogations. All efforts failed, until Amtrak took the material in a cost-saving move as required by Congress.
And, yes, I'm kidding (maybe).
Click to expand...
There might be some truth to that. The Wardens probably got tired of the prisoners taking forever to finish up in the bathroom. As some one pointed out earlier...the unending wipe. :lol:
 
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