What's a biffy?

[Anonymous]

What's a biffy? Can't find a reference in any dictionary. From the passage, I'm guessing that it's a toilet in a diesel loco - are these located in the nose of hood units?

[alangj]

Don't have a clue as to what the derivation of the term might be, but I've run across references to toilet paper as "biffy paper", especially in military slang, so I'd suspect you're correct in your guess.

Alan

[rogerhensley]

A 'Biffy' is an outhouse, an outdoor toilet. Today, it would be the chemical toilet found at construction site and many public group activities. Yes, the toilet in the nose of a locomotive would qualify as a 'biffy'.

Roger

Roger Hensley - [e-mail]
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[BR60103]

When Whit Towers was editor of the NMRA Bulletin, he was criticised a bit (not sure how much or how seriously) because he found biffies humourous and would mention them or print pictures of them regularly. He always used the term biffy.
Funniest article he published was after the convention in Calgary where he found the two story, multi-holer from the hotel and applied the steam locomotive wheel arrangement system to them.

David