Mousies, too.
I once opened up an exterior wall to find the old romex had turned into three parallel conductors: two bare and one covered with black insulation. Very interesting.
Ed
A friend of mine had a firm rule for his young son: you do NOT touch the trains unless I am around. Is that understood?
One day he found trains moved around and even knocked over. He confronted his son who was evasive about whether he had ever violated the above-rule, so the boy was punished. Tears, etc.
Then it happened again; trains knocked over, scenery damaged. This time the punishment was even more severe. Tears, etc.
And then my friend was called at work by his wife, who was in a panic: “We’ve got a squirrel in the basement!” Tuns out all the damage he had seen was done by the squirrel, not by his son.
My friend felt very small when he had to apologize to his son. Remember the Donald Duck cartoon where Donald accuses his nephews of smoking and punishes them only to learn that the cigars they were trying to hide were meant as a gift for him? That is how my friend felt.
Dave Nelson
Having read all the way through this thread I extend my sympathy to all of you folks who have had bad encounters with critters.
Here in the Dessicated Desert the county’s rodent population (all types) is almost non-existant. When one gets into a house it merits a thirty-second bite on the five o’clock news. As for squirrels, the native Joshua trees are not squirrel-friendly, and all the transplants from wetter climes have to be irrigated. The horticulture experts did NOT import squirrels.
When I lived in the Tennessee woods I had a squirrel bite the hot wire on the pole pig that fed my house and short itself across 7200 VAC. The good news? Instant fried squirrel. The bad news? The bare wire shorted to the casing and blew the transformer. No power for two days.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - in Southern Nevada)
We have tons of the critters, never bothered anyone here, roof rats are another issue but not in my house so far.
OUCH!
Dang.[:'(][:(!]
SQUIRREL!!!
Seriously,sorry to hear of the damage to your layout.Never had one in the house,but I’ve lost several large tree limbs due to squirrels “ringing” the branches - chewing the bark off all the way around.
Mike
You know you can put a screened chimney cap on just in case you want to use that flue at some point in the future. It will also keep out the rats with tails.
I have two cats and two dogs. No rat or Squirrel problems [tup]
YGW
My worst fears have come true. My layout has a short in it. I hate squirrels.
Oh man ! Sorry to hear. A lot of wire tracing to find it.
Now as far as that elk thing…steaks are way more tastier that squirrel. [:-^]
Mike.
Matt:
It looks like the elk were just putting down some ballast when things went south…[;)]
Mike
The elk can be a pain, but it’s something we have to deal with having an outdoor forest layout. Why everything, including all turnouts, are brought indoors during the winter. Just the tracks are left outdoors. Thankfully the track can be repaired usually fairly quickly.
Here’s that same area after being repaired (the elk damage was right about where the gondola is):
My problem was a chipmunk. My layout is in the garage, and I often leave the door open during the day. Sometimes I close the door with the remote from inside the house. Well, a chipmunk got caught inside for the night. They panick, and run across the layout from window to window, trying to get out. It knocked over a bunch of cars, and an apple orchard, and several signals. Oh, did I mention a couple small puddles of chipmunk pee.
I was almost killed by a squirrel, some years ago. A squirrel had built a nest in my chimney over the summer. When the furnace came on in the fall for the first time, I was watching it, and the flame was drafting backwards out the front of the furnace. Checking the chimney, it was packed solid with leaves and twigs and other crap. Probably saved my life! I put a wire chimney cap on it the same day.
Fortunately the wiring wasn’t chewed. It was a boxcar with metal trucks that had been derailed. Dodged a bullet!