FLUSHING toilets onto North Yorkshire Moors Railway's (NYMR) tracks will end two years ahead of schedule, thanks to the lockdown.

The heritage railway is on track to finish a £1 million upgrade project by the end of May.

It is installing controlled emission toilets to its coaches while maintaining their heritage charm.

Instead of being flushed straight onto the tracks, the toilet contents will now be flushed into specially installed tanks until the end of the journey.

The project, with full funding by Network Rail, also includes installing pump out stations at Grosmont and Pickering.

Chris Price, general manager at NYMR commented: “Fortunately due the pandemic we were able to bring this originally external funded project in house which has ultimately maintained a constant stream of work for our carriage fitters and allowed us to get ahead of the curve in ending what is an unpleasant practice.

“We are grateful for the support we have received from Network Rail which is helping us to build a more sustainable railway for the future and it’s further proof of the work we’re doing to preserve the past and protect the future.”

It takes about two weeks to fit the retention tanks to each coach so that toilet contents will be no longer be flushed out of the train onto the track, but will instead be removed by the pumping stations.

The Pullman Dining carriages and two newly refurbished Fuss Free Access coaches among the 13 coaches getting the new tanks.

For more than a century, it was standard for train toilets to flush onto the tracks.