“Anyone old enough to remember not being able to use the toilets while a train was in the station—and the reason why?”
The trains had no holding tank in those days. Just dumped it on the tracks...
Just like in Europe back in 1986 when I was over there. The wizz flushed right onto the tracks. My dad (R.I.P.) was using a train bathroom to take a wizz over there, and when he flushed, some disturbance of air under the train caused the stuff to fly right out of the toilet onto him. He spent awhile washing and toweling himself off before returning to his seat.