I have a problem with my cats getting on the layout and getting cat hair all over the track then intern getting the the locomotives and the wheels of the rolling stock. how do i get the hair off.
cat keep the cats out there cat box is down there to.
Ben.
There was a lively discussion thread in either this forum or Layout Building a while back on this very subject. I can never make the search feature of the forum work for me but if you can you might want to search for it. Or maybe someone can point you to it. As I recall there were lots of good–and some not so good!–suggestions there.
Canned air. Scares my cat away from the layout.
Otherwise, be prepared to rip the sideframes off your locos to pull the hair off the axles.
Not being a cat person, I’ll avoid commenting on the solution to this problem.
Ben,
The earlier discussion mentioned above was on this forum a few weeks ago. Someone hung blinds around the outside of the layout to keep his cats off. Unlike grande man, I like cats - so I thought it was a rather ingenious idea.
Tom
Ben This might sound wierd but my wife says cats do not like used coffee grounds. She says to put some in little dishes on or near your RR. She used this to keep cats out of her flower beds . After a couple of days they would’nt go near them.
Tom
Ben,
I guess I should consider myself lucky. My little furball has ben ver respecful when it comes to my trains. I haven’t built my layout yet, but she never gets on my work desk that I have building models,cars, and engines. I leave them out all the time and never have aproblem.Never even came up “missing” parts, which sometimes happens with cats in the house. Your going to have to “train” them or use the blind thing, which sounds like a very ingenius idea and should be effective. Canned air works great for getting the hair out of my keyboards and any other electronics that I have. She likes to sit on my lap while I’m at the computer desk.
Good luck,
Josh
Our cat likes to sit on my lap while I’m at the computer, too, Josh. It’s hard to reach over a cat to type on the keyboard, isn’t it? I clean my computer every 3 months and I have to blow the cat hair out of the keyboard. Cats hate anything that makes a hissing noise–canned air, air freshener spray, vacuum cleaners, etc. I don’t have much of a problem with our cat getting up on the layout, although he has, and has chewed on some telephone poles.
Except for our cat, Elmer, when I was going up. I loved having someone vacuum him off with the Electrolux. He was one laid back cat…
Tom
I love cats, they taste like chicken… [}:)] Gotta be careful saying stuff like that after inheriting 3 of the little beasts from my parents (two kittens when my Dad died and now my Mother’s cat since she has gone to a Nursing Home). They are sweet cats. Very gentle and loving. BUT! The only real solution to cats getting on your layout and causing problems (cat hair gathers everywhere) is to keep the cats away from the room with the trains. I know that is often difficult, but it is the only solution to the problem. You say the litter box is down there and I assume the cats have access to the space all the time. Unless you can find a way to close off the area with the layout and keep the cats out, you are going to have problems. Sit down with the Boss (you know who that is) and negotiate a reasonable compromise.
By the way even if you can find a way to keep the cats off the layout, cat hair may still be a problem. Install an air filter in the room to trap as much hair as possible.
we (my wife) have 4 cats and i have had to deal with the same. If you can attach some aluminuim foil where they get on. the crinkeling that happens when they jump up there is something they dont like it has worked for me
You could use a small vaccum to take the hair off. But I got a story for you. My cats went to the bathroom on most of the stuff that I had put on the floor, not knowing that they would do that!! When ever there near the layout, I yell an run at them!!!
I recently took care of all my cat problems: I got rid of the four legged little @#$%^s. Now, I have a worse problem: My wife’s ferret. I love the rodent to death, but she likes to chase my trains, and let me say this much, I would rather deal with cat hair than ferret footprints.
Here’s a thread I had started last summer, http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?page=-1&TOPIC_ID=16259&REPLY_ID=141346#141346
It has a couple neat suggestions. Though I think you’d agree that my problems were a little worse than yours.
Here’s a another couple of suggestions. Most likely the cat is probably laying on the layout. Cat’s like to be up high. If you find that place they like to lay in add some scenery so they can’t lay there anymore. So if you have a field they reside in place a barn or some trees in the middle. When they find their bed is no more they will find someplace else. In fact take anything off the layout they enjoy and replace it with somthing they don’t like.
A cheap squit bottle works well. Hit them enough and they will stay away for a while. I’m still in the foam scenery stage so I let my one cat sleep up there sometimes. She stays off the track and away from scenery. Though when I have track down the water bottle comes out. If you look at the post eariler this is the cat that likes to watch trains go by and doesn’t disturb anything. Hope some of this helps.
Andrew
Shave the cat(s). We have our two cats shaved regularily (about 6 to 8 weeks), and they prefer it, almost eliminates all shedding. We have them shaved due to my wife’s asthma. They also get baths once or twice in between.
Nigel,
When do your bandages come off? I’m just having fun visualizing my cats response to an electric shaver…