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On-board toilets are becoming a standard fitting on long-journey work and passengers are also coming to expect drinkdispensing machines. Noel Millier investigates
AS MORE and more holidaymakers head for the sun by coach, increasingly coach operators are equipping their vehicles with more than just seats. Passengers are coming to expect the luxury of hot and cold drinks and on-board toilets.
One problem for the operator is that the addition of a lavatory and catering facilities can reduce the number of seats and thus harm profits and flexibility.
This state of affairs has not gone unnoticed and there are now a number of products on the market that allow coaches to be converted for specific jobs without incurring too much downtime or seat loss.
One popular product is the Nomad Hostess unit from Nomad Services of Furnace Lane, Sheffield. This unit takes the place of two seats and consists of a cabinet containing a sink with running water (34 litres — 7.5 gallons) which can be used for either washing or making cold drinks, and a cold box/refrigerator to hold sandwiches or wine and beer.
The unit contains all necessary fittings including sockets for electric and waste connections. It is designed to be used with a Nomad hot-drinks dispenser and can be installed in 15 minutes.
It comes in 25 or 30in wide versions, and measures 31in in height from floor to the working surface. Although normally finished in Formica, it can be finished to match the coach's interior at extra cost.
The Nomad Hostess can also be fitted with the Nomad hotdrinks dispenser although this machine is also suitable for mounting on a toilet-cabinet roof. The 24V drinks dispenser is made with stove-enamelled mild steel and food-grade stainless steel. The machine is compact, about 18in wide by 11in deep and 20in tall.
It holds four columns of cups, with each cup containing the ingredients for a selection of hot drinks — white tea, white coffee, chocolate or soup. Each column holds 30 cups and the machine comes with a 55-cup water tank which has a non-spill locking filler.
The machine is heated by a 20 amp/24V heating element which is controlled by a close tolerance thermostat. If it is filled with cold water at the start of a journey, the machine is ready for use in about one hour. An ignitionoperated relay is used to power the unit to avoid any possibility of it accidently being left on and draining the coach batteries. An isolation switch and slide lc fuse are also fitted to protect t coach wiring.
Alternatively, Shad, Technics of Potters Bar, He fordshire, manufactures a ran of drink and catering units usi, a grp-moulded modular syste Shades uses the Eurobev drin system, which offers a wi range of drinks placed in sm sachet containers (like the mr malade containers on train The drinks are served from a 2, water boiler which can supi either hot or cold water.
Shades offers a compact SE contained one-seat space La which requires only a pow point and comes complete wi its own fourto five-gallon wet tank. Shades recommends if the unit is wired to allow t driver to control it from the des The module is hygienic, rattl free, and can be easily c mounted. The one-seat mock. costs £860.
The Shades two-seat modL is also moulded from grp ai unlike the single-seat unit r quires plumbing in. This i cludes a sink, storage area at refrigerator and can be used conjunction with the Eurob, hot drinks system. It can also I extended for use as a bar, even fitted with a microwa, cooker for more imaginative o coach catering.
In the last couple of yea more and more coaches a being used on work where toilet compartment is a nece sity rather than a luxur• However, the work where ti loo is needed is usually lor distance work and here new coaches are the order of the da As coaches are ofte downgraded for work where toilet is not required, a demour able unit is a boon.
Shades offers a modular g unit that serves its purpose we The unit does require sorr plumbing but can be taken and out of a coach through tt rear emergency exit.
Many new high-floor coachr are now fitted with centr sunken toilet compartments ar to increase the vehicles' flexib ity a number of bodybuilders i eluding Berkof in Holland a making the toilet cabin top d mountable. A false floor, cor plete with an additional doub seat, can be fitted making tt toilet out of sight and mind un required again for long-ha summer operation.