Cats and model trains - any tips?

[chatanuga]

Since I'm owned by two cats, let me give some tips on what I've done.

1.  If you can, locate the layout behind a closed door.  My layout is in the basement, so by closing the door, the cats can't get down there.

2.  Keep a water bottle with a spray nozzle handy.  If you see them get up on something that they aren't supposed to, shout "No" or "Down".  If they do not comply, a quick squirt of water does the trick.  Soon, they'll learn not to get up on things.

3.  Get an empty soda can and fill it with some pennies.  Place near where the cats are getting up on something or tampering with something.  When the can gets knocked off, the noise spooks them, and they learn not to go near it.  (This has worked great with my cats' trying to climb the blinds on my living room window.)

4. Get a small battery-operated motion alarm and place it near where they are not supposed to be (ie. on the layout, behind the TV, etc.).  They learn quickly not to go near it.

5.  Leave out strips of clear packaging tape on the edges of the layout.  They don't like things that stick to them.  Beware of this though and only do it when you're home.  A cat with a strip of tape stuck to its behind will hit mach one is 0.00000325 seconds.

6.  Cayenne pepper.  Let the cat taste it first.  Once it tastes it, it won't even stand the smell.  I use a paste of cayenne pepper and water for on electrical cords and that sort of thing.  I have tried the sour apple and bitter yuck sprays, but my cats like the taste of those.

7.  Scat mats.  These are plastic mats that have exposed wires running around them on a 9V battery.  When the two wires are touched at the same time, the cat (or human's hand) will get a small shock.

Those are things that I've tried and can think of off the top of my head.

Kevin

[mononguy63]

Kittyzilla is a way of life on my layout. Two cats actually. I can't keep them away because the layout must share the basement with their food and, uh, support facilities.

The felines actually walk over (and sit and lie on) the layout quite discreetly. The only problems occur when one will get spooked by a rampaging 4-year-old and scamper away. Even then, the only ill effects I can recall after multiple episodes are two displaced trees and one Blue Box gondola that took the Newtonian Route to the floor.

 

[cacole]

 I guess I'm just lucky.  I have a Calico that traipses around on my layout all the time, and she has never disturbed anything.  She even laid down on the layout as I was building it, watching what I was doing.

[pastorbob]

Very simple.  My two cats, two neutered old sisters, live upstairs.  The door from the kitchen hall to the garage is kept closed at all times, and the door from the garage down to the trainroom is also kept closed, even when I am down there.

Never have a problem.  Now that raccoon that got in last spring.............

Bob

[BRAKIE]

My daughter use a spray bottle of water to teach her cats to stay off her furniture and counter tops.Its humane and it works.

[Allegheny2-6-6-6]

 A pellet gun works very nicely as a 22 will ricochet indoors and may hit one of your trains or buildings

[PA&ERR]

-Kosmo

[ho modern modeler]

You can always put a no-kill animal shelter on your layout. I just did my benchwork and made it 4' off the floor, which eliminates 3 of the 4 cats. I'll put a 1' sheet of Lexan or plexi along the sides to get rid of the smaller one. It's called "Step-stool modeling".

[nik .n]

 Popits

[carknocker1]

Vicks vapor rub !!!! Put it any where on the layout you think they will jump up . It really works and it won't stain your scenery , plus it is real funny to watch a cat get repulsed by the stuff and run the other way never to return .

[lvanhen]

A very big rotweiler!

[SouthCoastRail]

Try powering the rails with 110 volts. Hang on your from Australia, you can go to 240 volts.

Rail line, feline its all the same.

Bob

[rclanger]

There are two inside cats in our home.  I have found a closed door to work best.  I case one sneaks in a spray from a water bottle works well.

[Packer]

All the ones I've heard:
-Sound equipped engines
-automatic anti-cat spray
-dog
-animal repelent
-screens or lexan/glass plates to prevent them from climbing on the layout

[tbdanny]

Hi,

I know for a fact that at some point in the near future, I am going to have cats living in the same house as my model railroad.  I'm aware that a few others have this situation.  May I ask for any tips on keeping feline paws off the trains?

Thanks in advance,

tbdanny