Note to self: wear brown pants if ever touring Howard Zane’s layout …
Dave Nelson
wif or wiff out?
[quote user=“dknelson”]
I don’t like spiders very much, so maybe that is why they like taking special interest in inviting themselves to my railroad equiment. So annoying[:S]
Train then to string wires on the telegraph poles…[Y]
The only snakes around here are people, and a rare rattlesnake but I’ve never seen one in my yard. Lizards on the other hand are abundant. They are all over our fences and outside walls. Sometimes they get inside. I caught one eating ground foam scenery once. He didn’t really like it but I guess he loved the nice green color of it and thought it was edible.
So far, a very slim proportion of replies have had to do with critters in and around layouts – mostly, they’re just about critters.
Gottcha![bow] Thanks.
in and around layouts -
Also, gotcha …
I once found a small snake in the room adjacent to the layout room… Does that count? … I captured it and took it outdoors where it belonged… [:)]
[quote user=“Howard Zane”]
dknelson
Note to self: wear brown pants if ever touring Howard Zane’s layout …
Dave Nelson
dknelson
Not to worry, the snake was harmless even at around 6’ in length. I used a grabber and deposited him in the woods behind my home. Actually I thought about keeping him as I have a serious mouse problem, but then again all they do is eat some of my trees, knock over a few figures at times, and leave footballs on the track. I have several cats, but they’d do more damage while chasing the mice.A bit off subject…but interesting. Years back we were filming a TV commercial for the Timonium train show on my layout. I was watching in the monitor when two of my cats jumped on the pike an ran before the camera. The video guy was upset, but I said let’s use it with the cats. Well we did and that was by far our best show with over 10,000 attendees for the weekend. A huge number of attendees wanted to see the cats on the layout. This was the Febuary 2000 show as some may remember the shoulder to shoulder crowds.
HZ
Note to self: wear brown pants if ever touring Howard Zane’s layout …
Dave Nelson
FWIW, Howard & others who use the quote feature: Quoters comments should go AFTER the bracketed “/quote” of the quotee. If you do it before it gets lost in the gray quote box, as pictured above.
Again, FWIW…
“Train then to string wires on the telegraph poles…”
I wondered if and when someone would bring that up from that thread[:D][:D][:D][:D].
I’ve had mousies down in the train room, at least saw the little presents they left… A few plain old snap traps got rid of the population for me. I found a small hole where they could get in and filled it with steel wool and putty. I also had a neighborhood cat get stuck down there for about 6 weeks once… Somehow the poor thing managed to stay alive eating spiders and drinking out of the water in the sump pump. Finally found it, picked it up, took it upstairs and gave it water and a little food. Then picked it up and was going to take it around the neighborhood and see if I could find where it came from. As soon as I got outside though, the cat jumped from my arms and headed up the street. Hope it found it’s way back home!!! Poor thing. Now the worst I get causes this:
73
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Sorry, I don’t have a layout right now, just critters.
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I will stay off this thread.
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-Kevin
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In an earlier post, I told of a squirrel that got in our basement and trashed multiple parts of my layout.
A few years before that, I noticed that some of the trees on a hillside looked odd but I couldn’t quite put my finger on what was wrong. These trees were made with natural materials. When I started running a train it went into a tunnel but never came out. I was able to back the train out of the tunnel. When I looked in I found a mouse nest made from the tops of the trees that looked odd earlier.
It’s always something.
Opinions vary about sump pumps and check valves. There are those of the opinion that letting the 6-8’ water column “fall” back thru the pump when it shuts off prevents dirt and silt from clogging the pump and the pit.
All you need do is have good fall, and maybe a bit of a trap at the top of the “lift”.
Additionally many claim the pumps last much longer not starting with a full head load in that pipe.
Sheldon
Folks, I just guessed that the snake gained entry through the sump pump as it seemed logical, and I did install screen at exit pipe. It is possible that errant snake could have just as easily came through front door as we often leave it open during nice weather…and then slithered down the steps to the train room. He was rather large…my guess would have been 6-7 feet…a sobering experience even though he was non-poisonus. It is also possible that he loved model trains…more than I can say for many of my neighbors, some grand-kids, and a slew of ex-wives.
HZ