EM-1 I have always liked animals, but preferred cats over dogs. I have had pet dogs get hold of models I've spent time on, and treat them as chew toys. They have seemed to be more interested in chasing and catching running trains than my cats have. I only had damage on a model once from a pet cat. I don't currently have a layout, but I periodically lay out something on the basement floor with E-Z track, or a cheapy RC "G" scale set I got last year. Our current cats just lay down alonside the track and watch, maybe once in a while put a paw in front of the train and pull it away a few inches before contact. The large, Xingu, a 14 lb female Maine Coon, sometimes will get behind a slow train and follow it for a bit, then clear the ROW and go back to where she picked it up at first, then follow again when the train comes around the loop. I've found the dogs I have get excited too easy, need constant attention to keep from repeating behaviors that cause damage. Generally, the cats I've had only have to be told No once in my old NCO voice, and they give a little look, back off, and rarely need a repeat.
I have always liked animals, but preferred cats over dogs. I have had pet dogs get hold of models I've spent time on, and treat them as chew toys. They have seemed to be more interested in chasing and catching running trains than my cats have. I only had damage on a model once from a pet cat. I don't currently have a layout, but I periodically lay out something on the basement floor with E-Z track, or a cheapy RC "G" scale set I got last year. Our current cats just lay down alonside the track and watch, maybe once in a while put a paw in front of the train and pull it away a few inches before contact. The large, Xingu, a 14 lb female Maine Coon, sometimes will get behind a slow train and follow it for a bit, then clear the ROW and go back to where she picked it up at first, then follow again when the train comes around the loop.
I've found the dogs I have get excited too easy, need constant attention to keep from repeating behaviors that cause damage. Generally, the cats I've had only have to be told No once in my old NCO voice, and they give a little look, back off, and rarely need a repeat.
I wonder if the Dog Whisperer has ever done a case that dealt with model train obesession?
Will
Keep the door closed and a squirt bottle handy just in case. No problem.
Bob
Photobucket Albums:NPBL - 2008 The BeginningNPBL - 2009 Phase INPBL - 2010 Downtown
~G4
19 Years old, modeling the Cowlitz, Chehalis, and Cascade Railroad of Western Washington in 1927 in 6X6 feet.
I have not had problems with my cat "playing" with my trains, but she was always interested in the sound when I run a locomotive. The only problem I had was one day I was doing some decals, she jumped in my lap, and discovered that I had provided a water dish for her to drink from. Fortunately, I did not have any decals soaking in the dish at the time.
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch
CP5415 This is what the engineers in my locmotives see when I'm not around I've been lucky, Molly hasn't knocked anything down or broken anything YET!!!!! Right now, she's more fascinated with the guinea pigs we have. Thank fully
This is what the engineers in my locmotives see when I'm not around
I've been lucky, Molly hasn't knocked anything down or broken anything YET!!!!!
Right now, she's more fascinated with the guinea pigs we have. Thank fully
haha I used to have a guinea pig named Molly. The cat I had at the same time was scared of her - he'd sneak up close to the guinea pig and sniff at her, and then Molly would do that instant 180 they do and the cat would run away. A couple of times he poked his nose or a paw in her cage - until she went to gnaw on the intruding appendage.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
He got tired carving foam...
Engineer Jeff NS Nut Visit my layout at: http://www.thebinks.com/trains/
da_kraut Just kind of curious here. Since some the sound decoders are programmable from files that the manufacturers provide, ie one can program a Loksound decoder to sound like a GE or EMD. So if that is possible can one program, temporarily a number of locomotives to sound like a bunch of barking dogs? Would that not scare away even the most bold cat? Specially if all of a sudden half a dozen locos start to bark like rotti's? Has anyone tried this? Sure would be interesting to find out the result. Frank
Just kind of curious here. Since some the sound decoders are programmable from files that the manufacturers provide, ie one can program a Loksound decoder to sound like a GE or EMD. So if that is possible can one program, temporarily a number of locomotives to sound like a bunch of barking dogs? Would that not scare away even the most bold cat? Specially if all of a sudden half a dozen locos start to bark like rotti's?
Has anyone tried this? Sure would be interesting to find out the result.
Frank
To those who vote canine-they shed too! They also jump and get paws up on things to see better, tails wag and swing wildly behind them knocking things over too. Anything with more than two legs is on borrowed time in the train room.
Dan
Well they made decoders with Christmas music in them, so I'm sure you could put dog noises in one. However it may have no effect. If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch, there's a free app called Kitty! that has various cat sounds as well as a can opening and a couple of barking dog sounds. The cat sounds are great - the cats will start running all over the hous elooking for the 'other cat' they keep hearing. When I play the dog barks, they basically look at me like WUT? The older one has been around dogs so he knows what they are, the little one was last around dogs when she was a very young kitten so might not know what they are. I guess neither one cares about a dog barking or growling.
"If you need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm."
haha I have one like that
She was also a bumping post thief, at my previous place where the layout was being built in the dining room. One day I noticed one of my Walthers bumpers was missing. I found it on the floor, and restored it to the layout. A few days later - gone again, and nowhere to be found. Like a week later I found it outside the front door - she batted it around the floor until it went under the door and into the hall.
aloco Heeeerrre kitty kitty kitty...
Heeeerrre kitty kitty kitty...
AAAWWWWWW!!! Now geeesh----he didn't hurt you---maybe mangled the tree a bit.
'Spring' does sleep in odd places though
He's also something of a limbo cat
Trying to hold onto this fellow is like holding onto an unwinding spring---------
Any argument carried far enough will end up in Semantics--Hartz's law of rhetoric Emerald. Leemer and Southern The route of the Sceptre Express Barry
I just started my blog site...more stuff to come...
http://modeltrainswithmusic.blogspot.ca/
Brought to you by the letters C.P.R. as well as D&H!
K1a - all the way
I was dating a young woman and she asked me how I liked Cat's? I said fried, not the answer she was looking for?
When Shaddy was a puppy she use to come out to the train room with me and watch the trains with some interest. I went to the mens room and she wanted to stay, Oh well whats is she going to do?
I cam back and she caught the nasty sound Like Like GP 38 for me. Stood there wagging her tail and dropped it at my feet when I sat down. She was very pleased with her self. She is 8 months in this picture.
She had just dropped her prizes and was backing away in the picture. She has all so caught a few rabbits (did not kill them) few cats, 1 possum, and a owl. Owl was after the little white Dog Tiff.
I don't have a picture handy of Shaddy grown up, but this Sonya, Tiff and my self. Sonya and Shaddy are the same breed.
Sonya and Shaddy are Irish Wolfhounds. I piety the fool that would break into my house!
Cuda Ken
I hate Rust
Tom,
Come to Kansas. I saw one last night that I could probably put a saddle on him and ride him.
tatans I'm even more mystified now, with ALL the people that have cats and allow access to the train room, we are lucky up here to have 2 sets of nesting bald headed eagles, they certainly take care of any cat population and luckily they keep the cats out of our gardens.
I'm even more mystified now, with ALL the people that have cats and allow access to the train room, we are lucky up here to have 2 sets of nesting bald headed eagles, they certainly take care of any cat population and luckily they keep the cats out of our gardens.
Tatans:
Could I borrow your bald eagles a while? No cats in the garage, but there's a family of raccoons that uses my garage as a freeway between the field over the backyard fence and the neighbor's garbage cans across the street. Gets a little testy sometimes when I'm running the trains in the evening, LOL!
Those suckers are BIG! And MEAN!!
Tom
Tom View my layout photos! http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm310/TWhite-014/Rio%20Grande%20Yuba%20River%20Sub One can NEVER have too many Articulateds!
My cat died. She accidentally got locked in the train building when I bug bombed it. She was a mess the next day. Crawled off into the woods and died. Too bad. She was the only cat I could tollerate.
My cat is now banned from the basement.
It started as a missing person's case when I discovered that one of the fishermen under the bridge on my layout was gone but his fishing pole was still there. I never found the body but Gracie is still considered a Feline of Interest.
That was about a year ago. More recently, Gracie had taken to resting right in the middle of my freshly plowed field (it's April 1954 on my layout and time for planting). That was annoying because it took some time to set up the field in the first place. Then, I noticed a broken telephone pole and a downed transmission tower.
So, now Godzilla, I mean Gracie, is no longer allowed in the basement.
Alton Junction
My train room is seperate from my workshop. Kitty Kat is a regular at the workshop but is not authorized to enter the train room. I seem to spend more time in the workshop than the train room, except when I have guests.
I guess I should consider myself lucky. My three cats stay outdoors. I tried to bring one of them in and she freaked out everytime the refridgerator compressor turned on. Another one could care less, she would rather be roaming the neighborhood and catching mice. The third, well, that is a different story. I had him in one day and I was sitting down to paint some passenger car interiors with blue paint and he spilled the jar. This cat is named Bandit because he has a grey mask on this head and back. The rest of him is white. So with him spilling blue paint and getting it on his white feet was amusing. I tried to wash it off with water, and I still have the scars from that. After a year of that it finally disappeared.
In fact after that little fiasco happened, I got even. I got him neutered.
And don´t forget how much extra-work you can get by having a cat.
-Restoring models and landscape.
-Disassembling your locos to remove all of the pesky hairs.
-Vacuuming your entire layout and trainroom with a regularity that borders on OCD....
(Buy a dog instead)
Swedish Custom painter and model maker. My Website:
My Railroad
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Graff´s channel
Is there some relationship by MR's to cats?
Cats are the most compatible housemember.
The wife has the honeydo list and complains that you spend too much time in the basement
The dog constantly wants your attention.
The young kids need constant attention.
The older kids can care less about your empire.
The cat will just watch you work on your project.
In conclusion the cat is the only household member that both does not hinder your progress and takes an interest in your projects.
MEOW!
No problem here. My two cats Spooky the Maine Coon and Uff-Dah the Norwegian Forest Cat are strictly house cats and my MR is in the garage. They have absolutely NO intention of leaving the confines of the house and imperiling their position on the Food Chain, LOL!
Of course, helping Daddy with MR projects on the kitchen table is a whole 'nother story. Especially if it involves Spooky and a caboose. She's an inveterate cabeese-thief. Uff-Dah on the other hand, is fascinated by can motors. "Ooh, Daddy, it WHIRRS!"
They're very well behaved. For cats, I mean.
Besides, they know that I'm the one with the Opposable Thumbs.
tatansseriously, why would anyone ever allow a cat near a layout?
Because we don't have that option.
For the most part our 2 cats stay off my HO scale layout. Though I did wake up this past Saturday and found one sleeping on my new parking lot. As for the loop of HO scale track on the floor and the O scale layout, well that's a different story. The cats own the O scale layout (Not much to damage, It's Hi-rail O and the only scenery is green carpet). Also they get off the layout really fast when you move a train or blow a horn. As for the HO scale floor track:
every once in a while they'll slow things down a bit (that GP9M is at full throttle)...
The other culprit on the O Scale layout:
Enjoy,
Jamie
Cape Vincent Southern Railroad
HO scale Horseshoe Curve in 5’x10’
My YouTube
Yes, dogs can be trained. They also need ot be taken out and walked in the middle of winter or in a pouring rain, etc. etc. Cat problem was easily solved, my layout is in a spare room and I keep the door tightly closed at all times. I've never had a problem getting myself or construction materials throught he door and the cats sneaking in and heading right for the layout. That curiosity factor means that on the way towards the layout, there are dozens of other things for them to check out which gives you ample time to catch the instrusion and send them packing.I do often find them waiting outside the door forme to come out but they tend not to try anything sneaky while I'm looking at them. I'm sure if I walked away and left the door open they'd be in in a flash so, I don;t leave the door open.
It's not just layotu destruction - if I'm working on something else I may have a hot soldering iron or a bottle of glue ont he workbench, definitely not things you want a pet getting into.