Hi everyone I just thought I would add this topic mostly for the new to the hobby folks but the experianced modellers will see this for the funny thing that it was.Back 9 or so years ago,I had got a friend invlved in the hobby by joining the club I was a member of.He was interested in scenery and I was showing him the ropes one night at the club. He was helping me ground foam a new section of hill and we were finishing up the ballasting of the mainline through this part of the layout.For whatever reason the clubs prefered ballast was kitty litter not my choice but when in rome.I explained to my friend that woodland scenics or other manufactured ballast was better and left it at that.Fast forward two months I got a paniced phone message from my friend,since I knew he was building a small 4x8 for his kids I assumed he’d run in to a small snag so I went over to help him out.His small snag was that since he had a cat he decided to use the kitty litter for ballast,unfortunatly huis wife had bought the new improved "clumping litter"needless to say several feet of clogged track switches later we laugh about it.Everyone do yourself a favour and buy the pre-made ballast. Anyone else have any helpfull horror stories? Rob
I faintly smelled a whiff or two of somthing strange one evening, but it wasent strong enough to realy grab my attention.
Entering the train room a few days later is was so strong it allmost watered my eyes, sniffing like a blood hound as if looking for an escaped convic I worked my way and noticed somthing in the shadows behind the desk. Rolled out the desk from under my layout to see it.
Contrary to popular belief, cats love to rip open bags of woodland scenic balast, to take a dump in. The cat of course was unconcerned by this and just layed layed in my chair. I slowely took the shop vac hose, slipped it to its tail, hit the switch. I believe the cat thought that sucked as he quickley streaked away. Its now VAC trained and I keep the door shut.
Wow I would say that that sucks but that joke would smell as bad as your layout room did.My wife accidentally locked our cat in the layout room one day but to my luck and the cats control we weren’t left any presants. Rob
keep the kitties away from the layout, or you may get the reason not to flu***he toilet at the station effect…
Oh boy! I think I will take your advice and keep the kitty litter in the cat box where it belongs!
Thanks,
Ryan
Oboy! I did the same thing on my outdoor layout about 5 years ago–someone told me that kitty litter made really GREAT large-scale ballast. Obviously they did not have neighborhood cats! Maybe I’d better not tell you what I had to use the work train for to haul away--------
What scale was that club layout, anyway? I’m trying to picture JONNY CAT on an HO layout, and the thought makes my head hurt!
Tom [%-)]
At the GATS show an N scale railroad used kitty litter not for ballast, but for the scenery rocks. He also built an abandon adobe town out of the kitty litter rocks. He washed them first, said it looked better and kept the cats away. [:D]
Tim
Cats will use litter anywhere they find it, without regards to using the path of least resistance. I used to buy kitty litter in fifty pound bags and then store it in plastic trash cans. If I forgot replace the lid on these cans, they became additional litter boxes, even though the cats had to jump up to use them instead of merely walking into the boxes on the floor.
Something else not to use for scenery; coffee grounds. Enough said!
Bob Hayes
When we had 2 cats in the house, I would sometimes put both on the train table to see what they would do. Both would arch their backs and hiss while their hair stood straight up. Eventually the more aggressive of the two took a swipe at the engine (FP45) rolling it on its side. No real damage at all. Did I do it again? Well, sure I did. It sure was fun watching those 2 cats go crazy. And before I hear from the PC police, as soon as they went upstairs with me they were purring and sleeping in my lap. I kinda miss them but I don’t miss them. Know what I mean?
Archie
We also use that type of clumping kitty litter. I am so happy that it has never been an idea of mine to use it as ballast. Not a good idea at all.
I am still worried about what our cats will do to my layout after I finally get it built. My wife has decided that they are now banned to the basement. That wouldn’t be much of a problem as there is a room that is built at one end that I was going to use as my layout room. It wasn’t as big as I wanted, but it was going to do the trick. My wife again helped me out by deciding that it was going to become a spare room and also her craft room. My train stuff got moved into the general population area of the basement, and ever since I have been trying to figure out how I will keep the cats away from the layout and the workbench. I don’t much like the idea of having to put everything away. Oh well I will figure something out.
I’ve had my share of cats in the train room and on the layout,but in my experience cats are able to tread so carefully among objects and avoid displacing anything that I’ve never had any damages done. However…never try to shoo them away because then they tend to jump and run and that’s bad. Talk to them softly and lure them away from the layout and then chase them out of the room.
Kitty litter should NEVER be used for ballast, ESPECIALLY if you have a cat. Cats will use the kitter litter if they can get to it, and, cat litter that has been “used” by the cat is a serious health hazard to pregnant women because of some sort of parasite, as it has been proven to cause damage to the unborn child…a medical report was just issued today in fact.
I just ordered a few things from micro mark the track laying tool kit and the NMRA gauge this is my first steps in getting my layout up and running I will most likely go with woodland scenics ballast and definetly not kitty litter
Being in O scale, 3 rail to be precise, I am giving serious consideration to going the kitty litter route, especially given the amount of track on my layout. The secret is to buy the cheap stuff, no odor crystals, no clumping. Of course it also helps to not have a cat, which I don’t. I was actually thinking of doing some experimentation with dye to give it some color beyond gray.
I certainly would not recommend kitty litter for any scale smaller than S, unless you want to sit around sifting for a long time. On the other hand, the cost savings over Woodland Scenics, may make up for the time. It also depends on how much you need.
***, I don’t think anyone was suggesting the use of spent or recycled litter. Yuck.[swg]
By the way, this is actually a pretty common practice for people in 3 rail O, but I haven’t heard of it being used in HO. The idea is at least 25 years old.
I just clicked on this thread, and when it came up I happened to notice the “Ads by Google” block to the right on my browser. I guess it’s checking the content of the thread, because there were 3 ads for train products, and one for kitty litter!
Ah, the joys of Google ads. Once in a while, my old graffiti topics pop up. The ads are for graffiti removers. I’m not sure how they pick their keywords out of the topic content, but sometimes they can be pretty funny. Sometimes when a topic includes the foam sheets we use as scenery, the ads will be for fiberglass house insulation.
Hi Elliot, no, [:D], I was not talking about “spent” kitty litter, only the fresh stuff. Cats just seem to gravitate to kitty litter, and that of course is a good thing, unless you place it on your layout. THEN, it may become “spent”, and THAT is when things get very nasty. Also, cat urine smell is about the worse thing you can imagine to get out of woof, or foam, etc, after it gets through the kitty litter.
Rule #1: If you have a cat, do not use kitty litter
Rule#2: If you don’t have a cat, see rule #1 why? because you could have a visitor some day.
The layout was indeed HO I should add that the club which is still going strong started in the early 60’s and the original bylaws stated the use of kitty litter for ballast,my understanding is that the original members weren’t very well off for funds so after maintaining the building which they still own ate alot of the early budget,so they tended to cut costs where possible hence the kitty litter bylaw. When I joined in the early 90’s we were still removing sections of track with the old fibre ties. I left the club in 2001 after moving over an hour from it but also I was getting tired og the Dc or DCC discussions last I heard they were still rebuilding their old DC throttles some things die hard I guess. Rob
I’ll be honest with you ***, I’ve been a landlord too long. Pets are out of the question in my house. When my ex wife left me, she took the last dog with her. I’m still finding hair, two years later.
That last dog never liked me, of course the feeling was mutual. One day I was showing someone around the house, and we were in the train room. As we were talking, the guy stopped mid sentence, and pointed down at the dog. I turned just in time to see that so and so dog, leg raised, whizzing on the rug. Ratbag did it out of pure spite. He knew better than to pull that crap upstairs, but every chance he got to go downstairs, bingo. Turds too!!! The ex thought it was funny.
The only way a cat or dog will get into my house is over my dead body. At that point the train layout will be the least of my problems.
After the divorce, my daughter begged me for a pet. So for about $20 I picked up an original pet rock on Ebay. She loves it, builds houses for it and everything. One slight problem, when the weather is nice she can often be found in the back yard, looking for “friends” for Marrisa among the foundation plantings. Do you have any idea how much it hurts to step on a rock in your living room. If I was really mean, I would turn them into ballast with a sledge hammer, but kitty litter is much more humane.[swg]