Cats are so curious,especially when models are involved.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuJpYQSusxs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkU9NsfU6Gs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UakQTbIQIlM
http://www.modelrailroadforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11060
It’s been my experience that in many cases cats and trains don’t mix well. Mine always pushed everything out of the way and curled up in the middle of the layout. It wasn’t long before he became an OUTSIDE cat.
Mine are outside cats too, outside the train room. The older has gotten squired enough that she doesn’t try anymore. The younger male has never been in the room and knows he is not allowed.
OH BOY!! A Christmas cat-fest. [:P] [:P] [:P]
Here are a couple that popped up when I was looking at the ones above:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bX3zbgwq-8&NR=1
And just so the large scale folks will not feel left out, a little onboard camera / chase the cat action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91kwjcF98l4&NR=1&feature=fvwp
I wonder about the cat in the first video with the N scale coffee table layout; if it was my cat, she would have been inside the table in no time - not just hanging on the outside batting the glass.
A model railroad needs cats like a submarine needs screen doors.
My cats don’t bother my regular layout…at least not any more.
Our male cat DOES bother the under-the-table-top-xmas-tree-layout, though. I think it is a combination of getting up on the table for the trains as well as all the “sparklyshinyglittery” items hanging on the tree that move in the air currents and catch his attention. THis year I will put a fence around the layout so if he does get up there he won’t k-nocken-up-and-springle the trains to the floor!
I can’t believe the first one didn’t figure out the top was open and he could just jump in and catch those funny looking mice. My door stays closed and the cats stay out. I’ve let them in to sniff around, but that’s it.
–Randy
Well, I’m a Train Freak AND a Cat Freak, but despite what THEY think, the two don’t mix very well at all. However, since my model railroad is in the garage, and the cats are strictly house-critters, I don’t have any problems.
Only problem is when I decide to turn my kitchen table into a work bench and either Spooky (Maine Coon) or Uff-Dah (Norwegian Forest Cat) decide to help daddy by running off with such things as HO motors, driver sets or entire cabooses. But other than that, no problem except for when I set a train around the Christmas tree. Then the fun begins. Ever seen a 22-pound Maine Coon try and fit herself into an On30 gondola? [:P]
Tom [:D]
Please get a photo or video of the cat trying to fit herself into the gondola.
My late Chessie used to love curling up on the basement stairs and watching the trains on my layout. This is from around August 2007 when he was about 8 months old.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peNlFtwY2dI
Casey Jones has never paid much attention to the trains when he’s been in the basement. Since he likes to explore and get into things, he rarely gets let down there. The last time I let them in my office, they both enjoyed watching my Lionel run around the room on the floor.
Smokey, hasn’t experienced the trains yet. I don’t trust letting him down in the basement yet (got a lot of things to clean up and put away), and with my Christmas tree up in my office, he can’t come in to see the Lionel right now.
Kevin
Enticing cats to molest model trains doesn’t seem all that cerebral, I wonder what these cat lovers would think about a video of my 1900lb pet ox stamping on my layout, guess that wouldn’t be right huh!
Since my wife is the cat lover, I don’t get a vote. If it became a choice between the cat and the layout, I hate to think what would happen!
However, Catzilla lost interest in the layout after a few encounters with the spray bottle of wet water.
Have one cat left, have lots of trains in basement. Trains stay in the basement, cat stays in the house, all is peace and serenity.
Bob
One of my favorite topics…pussy cats and trains. I share my home with ten of the furry varmits in addition to my wife. Since the 180 degree wide stairway to the train area is open, I had to construct a folding door which works well at keeping them out. Every once in a while one of them will sneak in usually under a visitor’s feet. They have jumped on the layout, but some how navigate rather well among the choo choos, structures, and trees. Once years back I had spent literally months hand carving from moulded plaster, a four foot long viaduct. As I was installing it, a cat jumped up near the viaduct which was sitting on a slab of plywood over the open bench work. As I lunged for the cat, I accidentally knocked down the viaduct, not the pussy cat. This is why I build my many viaducts today from styrene.
Another time during an early open house, I ran the first train under my newly constructed and completely upholstered tunnel in section 1. Unknown to me and anyone else in the room, Sam the Maine Coon was sleeping on the tracks under the tunnel. When the train plowed into him, all of the attending folks that day witness probably the worl’d first full scale HO earthquake. Sam’s 26 pounds must have jumped straight up smashing into the underside of the tunnel. Besides the train hitting the floor, trees, bushes, and rocks went careening down the hillside.
I could go on and on with pussy cat and train tales, but the bottom line…if a model rail and cat want to co-exist in a home, keep the cat away from the trains at all costs.
HZ
This year,I visited KTHV,news station in Little Rock,AR and brought Joey the garden cat a Chessie F unit,a gondola,and a Chessie caboose.I didn’t get track for him though.All HO scale,the people at the news station liked the gifts.
Anyone familiar with Joey the Garden cat from KTHV in Little Rock?Here’s his Facebook page.
http://www.facebook.com/anthony.holmes.948?ref=tn_tnmn#!/thvjoey
my sisters cat hates my trains she doesn’t like to be near them, the dogs on the other hand or well one of them Oskar tends to like to be a mischief maker. here a short NP freight is held up by a massive dog sleeping on the tracks.
[(-D][(-D]
Where is LION. [?]
Him cat and him likes trains. [swg]
LION is not far away. Him been busy spending money.
Cats and the train room. Well our two cats do not even come indoors let alone be able to find their way to the train room. They live in their own littler world out in the courtyard, yea even in the winter. Once I brought Tillie up do the train room, but you could not even put her on the train table before she wanted down and was looking for the exit.
Nay, I have enough trouble with my own furry paws.
But I did find a way to keep the soldering iron off of the work bench. I mounted a strong magnet from a hard disk drive in a safe place, and let that hold the iron up off of the table with the hot end away from melty plastics and furry paws.
ROAR
It would be nice if it was bigger than a thumbnail.[:)]