We've got a house full of cats, but no real problems with them mixing with the Trains.
One of the toms will get up on my desk and roll the cars back and forth on my test track. They only derail if he gets to enthusiastic with them.
Mark Gosdin
Soo Line fan wrote: This one is more a railfan and is content to simply watch the trains without getting up close and personal.
This one is more a railfan and is content to simply watch the trains without getting up close and personal.
My cat is like that. He finds a good spot and watches the trains for as long as I run them. He enjoys it so much that the left corner mountain of my layout is going to have a cat sized plateau where he will be free to hang and watch the trains all he wants.
If he is not sitting there, the plateau will also have a hinged lid with a storage compartment. It's all up here (taps side of head with finger) .
Jeff, that's a nice cat you have.
We have owned 2 cats at different times. I have found out they have different temperaments or personalities if you will.
The first cat could not be kept off the layout. One time she was sleeping inside a tunnel. I did the only thing I could think of to get her out. I sent a train full speed down the track but the cat escaped unscathed. I had to keep the door closed but later as the cat grew older she stayed off.
After this cat passed, we got another. This one is more a railfan and is content to simply watch the trains without getting up close and personal.
If you cannot keep them out with a door here is the best idea I have heard:
Get a motion detector / security light from HD or W-mart.
Instead of using lights you will need to get a screw-in plug adapter for one of the sockets.
Plug some type of noise making device into the newly created outlet on the sensor. A suggestion would be a small boom box set on a rap radio station. Turn the volume way up. If that does not scare the cat nothing will.
Radio Shack used to sell an annoying noise buzzer that screwed into one of the sockets. I believe they have since discontinued it. Maybe an alarm bell would work.
You will have to play with the timer / motion sensor settings, as well as placement. No sense on this noise pollution being on any longer than necessary. The motion sensor can be adjusted for area and sensitivity.
Jim
phugo wrote: Hello everyone,I have spent the last year very slowly building an N scale layout. My three cats have barely even noticed. Last weekend I finished the last bit of track laying for the main line and wired it up enough for a test run. Well my cats are now very interesested in trains. I came downstairs one day to find they had completely destroyed a laser cut wood structure that I built, knocked several cars off the table, chewed the back end off of the caboose, and chewed on some of the wiring. I now have to build some kind of doors to separate the cats from the train room. Anybody out there have cat/train issues?
Hello everyone,
I have spent the last year very slowly building an N scale layout. My three cats have barely even noticed. Last weekend I finished the last bit of track laying for the main line and wired it up enough for a test run. Well my cats are now very interesested in trains. I came downstairs one day to find they had completely destroyed a laser cut wood structure that I built, knocked several cars off the table, chewed the back end off of the caboose, and chewed on some of the wiring. I now have to build some kind of doors to separate the cats from the train room. Anybody out there have cat/train issues?
Who said anything about cats and trains ?
He's actually pretty good. He likes attention and will bother me while I am working on the layout but he seldom jumps on the layout. Here he was helping me with the construction of Horseshoe Mountain. He decided to inspect the foam.
Engineer Jeff NS Nut Visit my layout at: http://www.thebinks.com/trains/
Years back cats were a problem in one of my past layouts.
My solution was to make trees by stretching Woodland Scenics over some really shrub branches with some extremely sharp thorns. They looked realistic enough and within a week, cats stopped jumping onto the layout. They never returned to the layout.
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
To begin with, cats have no business even being able to get in your train room... Your asking for all sorts of trouble if you continue to allow that. Not only can they do a lot of damage to your layout and trains, you can also get hair in your locos, and this can be disasterous to steam locos... I'm an animal lover, and own a cat, but he's not allowed anywhere near my train room!.
Tracklayer
there are MANY posts on these forums about this issue.
No solid consensus about solutions although one I read involved covering the layout with newspapers and under the newspapers, set mouse traps. The papers keep the trap from hurting the paws but the noise supposedly scares them off.
I have my doubts and I never tried that one myself.
I do know that at least one of our cats truly did dislike a certain spray we bought that had a sort of sour apple smell (that I rather liked oddly enough) and we'd spray that on house plants.
Dave Nelson