Webster may disagree, but I'm quite sure that the word "catastrophe" comes from a model railroaders cat just ripping down several years of work of hanging telephone wires or overhead power lines. I'm sure many of you have interesting cat tales...how about sharing some......
Here are some of mine....
Open house day.... as new line to Union Mills just opened through a 6' long tunnel. Loco on point that day was a WSM B&O S1 2-10-2 hauling a mixed freight of handbuilt wood cars. Unknown to the hogger was that Sam the 22 lb. Maine coon cat was sound asleep on tracks under the tunnel. the S1 slammed into to Sam the cat and around 20 or so guests witnessed probably the world's first HO scale earthquake. Sam must have jumped straight up hitting the underside of the tunnel. Trees, bushes, some rock castings, and various scenic whatevers came tumbling down along with the S1 and several delicate wood cars hitting concrete after around a 500 foot scale drop. I had to bite my lip as it is not really in good taste to curse in front of a mess of guests. Sam did not get cooked or become a soup, but I devised a fool proof cat door the following day which still works to perfection today.
There are many cat tales as I have several of the furry varmits, but another one stands out quite well. Around 25 years back, we were filming an ad for the Timonium show using my pike as the background. In the middle of what was promising to be a great shot, one of my tuxedo cats jumped on the layout and smack into the middle of the scene. It was so perfect that we used this for the actual ad....and it got rave revues, never mind increased attendance.
Besides being a "trainaholic", I admit to being a "pussaholic" and quite proud of being both.
Let's hear of some of your cat tales..............
HZ
Howard Zane"trainaholic", I admit to being a "pussaholic" and quite proud of being both.
Russell
My family has always had cats, but typically only one at a time.
My wife and kids are allergic to cats, yet the one we have now sleeps on her feet at night.
We have several cat tales to tell...
When I was a child, our cat, Fireball (silver tabby domestic shorthair) loved to sleep on the train layout--specifically on the yards where cars were parked--and predictably, some of them ended up on the floor. I just chalked that up to "oh well, these are toys and sometimes they get broken". Besides, my "friends" (using the term very loosely) from school (even private Christian school, too) were always trying to destroy the trains anyway, so why would I get upset at the cat for doing what they deliberately attempted to do?
Our current cat, Midnight, (black domestic shorthair) always looking for attention, will jump up onto the train layout and sit wherever she pleases--so at least two steam engines have gotten a bit too close resulting in her fur being wrapped around the eccentric crank, with a yelp from the kitty, who then tried to destroy the engine which was attached to her at the time--to get it off her fur. The Proto 2000 0-8-0 survived at least two incidents quite nicely, with very minimal damage during a third. I'll will give the Proto 2000 0-8-0 an A+ for being able to bounce off scenery without serious incident. It bounces nicely!
Now that I've relaid part of the layout to larger radius to accommodate brass, she has a bit more room to sit on the edge of the layout such that the trains can get by.
However, when she walks on the layout she can and has knocked the occasional brass steamer over inadvertantly with the tip of a foot while crossing over them--but being brass, they have been just fine without so much as a paint chip--and she cannot knock them onto the floor because the trackage is inset from the edge to prevent that.
The delicate Athearn Genesis open autorack I bought yesterday, just to have one, can't be on the track when kitty is around. Bad things would happen, man...
John Mock
P.S. Midnight jumps from the layout onto storage shelves, which did knock a couple proto 2000 passenger cars onto the floor. They incurred modest damage and were junked. I know enough to leave her a clear landing area on the shelf now, and there have been no further incidents.
LOL! I think my cat must be related to all of yours. I don't have a layout but our cat Rufus the Destroyer loves the work bench. We've always had a cat, but he's the one that is fascinated with whatever is going on. He's managed to knock paint over (we still have the cat footprints on the basement steps as evidence), when he was probably six months old he came upstairs with an empty ACC tube stuck to his leg (I used it and left it with the cap off), and although he's able to balance on a 3 inch wide porch rail outside when he gets on the work surface he can knock off anything within a foot of the edge regardless of size or weight.
Our current cat never jumps on the layout, never jumps on my workbench or that of my wife, never jumps onto the dining room table or kitchen countertops, and in general is very well behaved. We are unlikely ever to be so lucky again when choosing a cat.
Dave Nelson
I was working on my double deck layout when I lived in Scum City (Houston). Progress was going well on the lower level and the upper level was basically on hold. All I had on the upper was a roughed out coal mine with about 7 tracks maybe 6' long staged with a lot of hoppers and a partially built mine just to see if it worked well. Well to help remove some fumes from the Envirotex poured on the lower level I had a 21" box fan on the upper benchwork aimed at the door. Under the UL I also had a workbench and on this particular day I was working there on another big mine structure while being kept company by my big shorthaired gray male cat named Smokey. Smokey was pretty large and very cool in every respect except he had a "thing" for chewing wires. Well the cord ran over the edge of the UL benchwork and down to a plug behind me. While working I heard a really loud "MEOW" followed by a big thud and then the crash of cars. I looked up and around and there was Smokey standing there with his fur all sticking straight out, standing on tip toes with his tail straight up in the air and eyes the size of my turntable pit! WTF? I managed to calm him down and check him out. He was ok and my first thought was he had stuck a paw into the fan and got tangled with the blades spinning. Nope! Well then I checked the fan for fur. Nope! Then I saw the edge of the cord at the plywood edge had 4 big holes punched into the insulation. AHA! So, Smokey finally bit into something that bites back. He was none the worse for wear but didn't get near the fan again. Sad part to this is one morning he got outside and decided to bite the neighbors AC power cord between the house and the AC unit. That one got him! I guess the remaining 8 lives went up in smoke.
Another cat named Duffy used to hang around while I was in the train room. One day she fell asleep in my tunnel, ala HZ, when the pair of Train Masters hit her she must have been in a very deep sleep as they were really loud engines. She couldn't get out of the tunnel fast enough to suit her and thankfully the back side of the tunnel was large enough for a terrified Tasmanian Devil to make a quick exit. She never went int he tunnel again and found a better resting place on my workbench..........until one day while the soldering iron was cooling down she backed in to it. She then decided the train roon just wasn much fun any longer.
Cats are awesome and a lot of fun but this is just proof that A: a train room/workbench can be dangerous places for them and B: maybe cats need better places to hang!
Roger Huber
the only real cat tail i have has nothing to do with our house cats , one time years ago we had a small place about 10 miles out of town it backed up on national forest land, had a barn/shed/train room about 75 feet from house, any way one morning after getting off graveyard shift went out to stoke the coal stove before turning in for the day opened the door and walla i was face to face with a bob cat(not the kind that runs on gas) sleeping on my bench work ,hadn't put down any track yet thank god as cat left long deep ruts on plywood getting out the door, which i didn't try to stop him was a adult tom , think he got in through a hole in the floor.needless to say was wide awake then.
When I was a kid my layout was in the garage. We don’t have basements in California and our garage was only used for storage like most people. It was also the home of our two cats. When you’re a kid and don’t have much of a hobby budget you cut corners. Most of my layout was built on top of solid plywood but one section was open grid which was covered only with a roll of paper grass. One night one of the cats tried to walk across the grass and fell right through, not just leaving paw marks but scratches as it panicked and tried to claw it’s way back up. Of course it ruined my pasture where my cows were grazing.
Yeah... You think you have cat problems.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
Many years ago our cat got up on my workbench and swatted an under construction Quality Craft kit on to the concrete floor. The kit never recovered. The cat lived on, a long happy life. But I was always careful never to leave out any thing for her to "play" with.
Paul
My kitty, a 22lb tabby, has only been on my layout Twice... (To my knowledge anyway.)
First time, no harm, no foul, no issues with anything "taking the plunge." While he did knock over a couple rail cars, they were far enough in from the edge that it was very unlikely they would fall off the layout.
The second time he tried, was where there are tracks right close to the edge, so I had installed a clear plexiglass "catch fence" along that area... To keep stuff from falling off the edge of the world to certain doom...
Maximus Caticus (Max Cat for short) bounced off of said "catch fence" head-first, and promptly exited the room, post-haste.
He then shortly after sauntered back in with the "I meant to do that" look on his face.
While my intent with the "catch fence" was to prevent anything getting knocked to the floor, it certainly did allow Max Cat to be knocked to the floor!
Ricky W.
HO scale Proto-freelancer.
My Railroad rules:
1: It's my railroad, my rules.
2: It's for having fun and enjoyment.
3: Any objections, consult above rules.
Cat saves railroad!! Yup, I had forgot to mention this story in original post......
It is 1992 and Allen Keller is due to shoot his Volume 12 on my layout, the Piermont Division. For several weeks, everything was dead and Keller was due in a few days. I called every model railroad electrical genius I knew or knew of..but still no sign of life. My control system was Dynatrol (taken from Dinosaur) and was rather new and at the time very few had knowledge of early carrier control....although analog. After more evenings of frustration and total failure, I had made my mind up to rip the entire system out leaving base wiring and connect to my old and proven MRC controlmaster and which never once failed. Keller would not have cared as long as a train could run through scenes to be videoed.
Tools in hand I went downstairs to train room ready for bear and to begin ripping the system out, when........Well, why not give one more try? I hit the power switch and everything came alive and then some!! What could have been the problem that stumped every professional train nerd in several counties? .....a cat, but this time fixing not wrecking!
After 10 minutes or so I found a tipped over Labelle passenger car with older Central Valley trucks. this car was somehow placed just in the entrance to a tunnel housing storage tracks and not easily seen. I placed the car back on the tracks knowing that one of my cats probably knocked over. Silence!!! Everything went dead again. I removed the car and all was fine. On older CV trucks and others, sometimes the insulation breaks down causing the above problem. The total brain power used in trying to solve this seemingly impossible problem was bested by a cat.
csxns Howard Zane "trainaholic", I admit to being a "pussaholic" and quite proud of being both. We have several cats also but they are never allowed in the train room.
Howard Zane "trainaholic", I admit to being a "pussaholic" and quite proud of being both.
We have several cats also but they are never allowed in the train room.
Snort!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enJviwLGuJ4
Should dig out the photo of cat sitting on stool, watching trains go by and post it.
I have a plexi glass barrier like Ricky W, but she was part of the reason it was there. Found trains off the track several times, fortunately no locos to the floor. The other reasons are track much to close to the edge (of necessity) and small children with long arms and magnetic fingers.
Took me a while to find her enterance and it wasn't until I found a cat bed made of trees and underbrush, with the overhanging roof of the grain store on the ground to make me get serious about finding it. It was down where the baseboard heating goes through the wall. Cats, like rats seem to be able to go through holes half there size.
Have fun,
Richard
Howard, LOL
Sam, the Cat ... 1
B&O S1 ....... 0.
Our trio of cats is not allowed on the lower level of our house where my model railroad is located.
My model railroad friend had his wife do scenery on the layout, and she "saved money" using cat litter to ballast the track ...... They have a cat..... Suffice it to say, that was a very dumb idea. ....
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
Whenever I open a closet door or a kitchen cabinet door one of my cats is always there to go inside. Same with the train room door, as soon as I open it they run right in and find a place to hide or look out the window. One thing I notice is if I leave the door open continously they lose intrest and don't come in the room at all. Another thing I also notice is they don't like to sit on the track with the DCC power on. They become very fidgety when they feel the tingling in their paws and get down from the layout.
Sorry, but you'll get no "cute cat" anecdotes from me. However, the stories explain a lot about the never ending threads on track cleaning and layout maintenance.
Wayne
This ^
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
riogrande5761This ^
Years ago my daughter had a cat that like to walk and sleep where it pleased including the kitchen table,stove and counters. She started using a spray bottle filled with water as a learning tool for the cat..The cat soon learned its out of bound areas and slept in a easy chair.
Some times a pet owner has to take steps to let a cat know who the real boss is and who owns who.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
My cat Chessie (Yes---Chessie) used to love to chew through thread power lines. The local Plattsville power company took a lesson from New York City and the power lines were moved underground (at least in my mind). He also collapsed a bridge that he walked over one day. The street got a "Road Closed Bridge Out" sign for the rest of the layouts life. In general as he got older he wouldn't go up much, or if he did there were certain areas where he could sit and watch the trains. If he was in one of the approved viewing areas I would leave him alone or just say hi & pet him. He eventually learned where he could and could not go. My layout was O gauge, so he really couldn't hurt the trains themselves any.
BRAKIE Years ago my daughter had a cat that like to walk and sleep where it pleased including the kitchen table,stove and counters. She started using a spray bottle filled with water as a learning tool for the cat..The cat soon learned its out of bound areas and slept in a easy chair. Some times a pet owner has to take steps to let a cat know who the real boss is and who owns who.
That does work, but you need to be there.
Another trick is to set mousetraps upside down on the counter (you will need to protect the counter) covered with a thick towel. When kitty steps on the towel, the mousetrap goes off and the towel "attacks" the cat.
It usually only takes once.
CG
Being the pussaholic that I am, I could not do anything that would tick the cats off. After all they let my wife and myself live here... all for the cost of a few cans of dead fish and fresh litter every day or so. We once had 12 cats, but seem to be running out of them as the last count was just 6.
There was a time when my patience grew short. I had spent around 200 hours carving stones into a 4' long plaster viaduct I had molded to span Mazie's Gorge.
This was turning out to be my finest creation on the pike... far exceeding anything I had done to date. The viaduct when finished was resting on a piece of plywood over open benchwork as I was preparing the scene for it's installation. It is easy to guess what happened next....but there is a small twist. Yup, a cat jumped up on the benchwork, but in my panic in chasing the *** cat, my shoulder knocked the viaduct to the floor. The damage was so severe, that it seemed like I could have put the plaster back into the 100 lb sack. Those who have visited my layout now see a viaduct built from styrene over this area. I have never again attempted anything using plaster although I have assembled some South River and C.C. Crow kits.
Just another cat tale (no pun intended). There are so many stories I could tell, I most likely could publish a decent size book with them.
Our cat, Miss Callista (named after Pope Callists the Firstt 222ad) is circling around my feet while I sit here in the computer office. Trains are two buildings over and two stories up, and Callasta being an outdoor cat would be very uspset to be taken up there, and could not find her way up if she tried.
Now she is out in the hallway, yelling MEOW as lout as possible, which will disturb Br. James no end, however, Br. James needs to be disturbed more than the cat needs to be fed.
My first Kali (one really shouldn't name a cat after any goddess of destruction...they live up to it.) was a terror on the layout until I got DCC, she stepped on the track and got Amped. It was enough to let her know that the track could bite. She promptly found the unfinished space and claimed it as HERS! and would be quite content to just laydown and watch the trains go by, being careful to keep her tail near her. She was also not fond of my sound locos, though she would always come running to see what the fuss was about. Saddly she passed away two years ago. Sphinx and Cricket will watch from the stools, but want no part of the styrofoam decking. I am content with that, although I am sick of having to move them closer because they can't see. They're as bad as the kids.
csxns riogrande5761 This ^
My late cat, Precious, seemed to find my trees quite tasty, as I'd find them with bare branches. Sprinkling cayenne pepper on them (after refoliating them) kept her away from them. My other cat, a tuxedo cat named Buster, would come partway down the stairs, then climb up and lay down on the HVAC ductwork. One day, while I was working on some control panel wiring, he thought it would be fun to drop down on my stomach. Scared the crap outta me. He must have thought it was hilarious, because he bolted up the stairs. After that, the train room door remained closed.
Marlon
See pictures of the Clinton-Golden Valley RR
Cats on the Railroad:
1) We had some labor issues during the construction of the railraod:
2) We had some NIMBY problems later on:
This was my worst cat-astrophe. I think the picture speaks for itself. End of the story, this kitty now resides outside.
Owner and superintendant of the N scale Texas Colorado & Western Railway, a protolanced representaion of the BNSF from Fort Worth, TX through Wichita Falls TX and into Colorado.
Check out the TC&WRy on at https://www.facebook.com/TCWRy
Check out my MRR How-To YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/RonsTrainsNThings
I found a good way to keep them off my platform. It is 52" Off the floor. Plus there is no other places to jump first then to the platform. Problem solved. The height is perfect for me Being 6'3".