I'm guessing hear but I think they must have filled all of the sinks urinals and toilets with plaster because after a long time of not being in use all of the U-bends would have dried out and because of the only thing that keeps the natural gases from the sewer from backing up undefinedVERY DANGEROUSE!) is the water in the U-bend witch must be substituted for something more permanent undefinedplaster!).
Sorry to kill the romance of it but it did seem strange to me at first also!
My brother was a resdent there, for ten years as a child. It was a nightmare! My parents were unable to care for him. Letchworth village was the states solution. I know he suffered , and I was too young to help him. It haunts me and breaks my heart , how he lived ,and how he lived and how he died. It was an absolute nightmare.
My grandfather Brad Brush was a steam engineer at this plant. They generated steam that was delivered by pipes to numerous buildings where it was used to make hot water, heat and cool buildings & etc. I remember going there one day with him and looking into the firebox of one of the main boilers (we used a mask with a thick glass viewport). One time he let me put coal into the firebox. The trains used to run over the top of the building and dump into hoppers in the roof. Inside the work area a trolley of sorts would be driven by electric motor to the appropriate firebox and a button would be pushed which would cause coal to travel down a chute and into the furnace. I remember the burnt coal piles and how it looked like black foamy glass and the tinkling noise it made when tossed on the pile. He eventually left there and became the Stationary Steam Engineer for the 'new' hospital that was built a few miles away.
Sorry to kill the romance of it but it did seem strange to me at first also!
Not quite as weird as it seams at first! LOL!
http://encarta.msn.com...61509090/U-bend.html