Protecting layout from cats

[Leon Silverman]

Ray:
That 8 mil plastic barrier will work only if the cats are declawed. Also, the plastic would preclude scenery or building with sharp points on top.

[orsonroy]

The most straightforward thing would be to add walls and doors to the layout room. If that's not possible, the simplest thing would be to add a simple barrier of 8mil plastic sheeting over the layout. Added to a 1x2 frame, it'll keep the cats off the layout, and will have the added bonus of keeping dust off as well.

[Leon Silverman]

Whatever physical barrier you use, it will have to be high. Cats have extremely strong hind legs which gives them extraodinary jumping capability. They can do damage to your trains as well. Cats are nocturnal creatures, meaning they are still active at night. If they decide to have a kitty war, your trains could be collateral damage.
If floor to ceiling barriers are impractical, I used 3 inch wide strips of plexiglass as see-through barriers around the perimeter of my layout. It did not stop the cats from perching on the layout, but if a train (HO gauge) was knocked over, it could not fall to the floor. The plexiglass was position by slots formed by 4 inch screws. The screwheads were left high enough so that the screw head would not scratch a model if it happened to slide past it.

[hoscalelarry]

My layout will be in a room with a door on it :) Only other idea is something called "cat off" [I think]. It's in a spray bottle and after spraying it on -- cats stay off furniture -- not sure if it'll work on layout. Good Luck :)

Larry

[Anonymous]

Hi Everyone,

Having moved, I am now working on my new layout. Have the track laid and wiring done. General positioning of buildings is also accomplished. BUT now I need to investigate how to protect the thing from Cat-zillas. The cats get locked in the basement each evening...which is wear the layout is. Needless to say, they like perching on it. This won't work well for scenery buildings and so forth.

Does anyone have ways or ideas that might work to protect the layout (other than shooting the cats...just kidding) Hopefully, it will be easy to implement, affordable and reasonable. I have thought about putting up some window screening...the fiberglass, not metal around the layout as one option.

Anybody else have any others

Thanks.

JB[:D]