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What's a biffy?

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  • Member since
    January 2001
  • From: Guelph, Ont.
  • 1,476 posts
Posted by BR60103 on Tuesday, April 30, 2002 1:06 PM
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

--David

  • Member since
    June 2001
  • From: Anderson Indiana
  • 1,301 posts
Posted by rogerhensley on Tuesday, April 30, 2002 9:41 AM
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 - madisonrails@railfan.net
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  • Member since
    June 2001
  • From: Evergreen Park, IL
  • 93 posts
Posted by alangj on Monday, April 29, 2002 11:28 PM
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
  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
What's a biffy?
Posted by Anonymous on Monday, April 29, 2002 9:16 PM
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?

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