whats up with cats and model railroads


thebigj55

New Member
I don't mind my cat sitting on my unfinished layout but i'm worried about her being all clumsy Godzilla-cat when its finished (she's a bit clumsy)

P.s. Do cats eat trees or foliage and will they derail rolling stock?
 
Every cat I've had (don't have any now) made it a point to get up on the layout every time my back was turned. One would just curl up in a clear spot and go to sleep but most of the others would knock rolling stock over, push trees over, chew on trees/poles and in a couple of extreme cases use it as a litter box. Several cats found themselves living outside permanently and a couple were sent to new homes. Only one stayed off the layout and that was only because he had a cock-eyed rear leg from getting hit by a car. He was a stray when he came here and he stayed for 6 years. He's buried between two pine trees in the yard. I've been catless since 2006 and have no desire to get another one.
 
When I'm running trains, my cats stay away. That doesn't stop them from wanting to play around the track and knock rolling stock over when I'm not around.

Different cats in the past had similar fun playing with my slot car stuff.

So, it would appear that cats and model train layouts are not very compatible. Segragating the cats and model trains seems to be the onlys answer or you may need to decide which you love more.
 
Yeah we only have one cat, she eats mostly houseplants and dried flowers then spends the rest of the day sleeping and throwing them back up.
 
In general, you can figure that cats and model railroads don't mix well.

Years ago I was building a layout and we had two young black cats. One was chasing the other down the track and the lead cat tried to duck through a single truss bridge. Could have been a Campbell model, I forget for sure. Needless to say the cat didn't fit and the bridge exploded.
 
well if you look at all the video's posted on that one message you can get a general idea of what will happen. Some stay away, some like to make it a rest or play area and some well are just lazy and don't want to let trains go by as evident by that gray cat in the one video.

My cat, well the few time's i've had track set up in my apartment has made it very clear he doesn't like trains. He swats and tries to pull it when it moves. Its comical.
 
Our cats come to the trainroom door and that's their limit.
A friend had one of his pee on his scenery and had to take the layout down to the framework just to get the smell out.
He now has an IR scensor that screeches the second anything jumps up in the room.
 
My cat jumps up every once in a while to see if a place has been cleared for him to sleep. While I built the layout he would frequently sleep in an unfinished area. Now it's funny to watch him walk around like catzilla. I just have to be patient when he bumps into tress occasionally. I actually kind of welcome the company when my wife isn't here.
 
I don't mind my cat sitting on my unfinished layout but i'm worried about her being all clumsy Godzilla-cat when its finished (she's a bit clumsy)

P.s. Do cats eat trees or foliage and will they derail rolling stock?

They sure do. I kinda found that one out when I was 10 and first got into model trains. We set my layout up in the dining room and one of our cats ate some of the Life-Like trees, knocked over some freight cars, and batted some of the vehicles around. My mom dubbed it The Attack of The Fifty Foot Cat. Since then I've always kept my trains in the basement where the cats won't go since they associate the basement with getting fleabaths.
 
i should get some measurements of my cat and see what size he would be, if his current size was HO scale. LOL, would be a monster.
 
We've been cat-free since our inherited 16 year old Siamese died. He had no interest at all in the trains, but a previous cat was fascinated by them. Of course, he was also fascinated by the contents of the toilet swirling out of sight when flushed, too.:rolleyes:
Currently, our dog is terrified of them.:eek:
 
Our current cat Yoda, could care less about the trains now. Used to he would climb all over the benchwork. Then he made a mistake. He successfully rolled a Bowser K-4, which is a very heavy loco, onto my concrete floor. He pushed this thing over 3 feet to make it hit the floor! He did all of this simply for attention, as when he was in here by himself, he would curl up into one of the chairs.

A couple of days with a water pistol has broke him of this! Now he just comes in and curls up into the chairs, and even likes to curl up into my lap while I'm at the workbench.

In case your interested, he is a "ragdoll" cat. They do crave attention and if they feel they are being ignored, they will call attention to themselves by generally knocking something to the floor! Then try to look so innocent!
 
Our current cat Yoda, could care less about the trains now. Used to he would climb all over the benchwork. Then he made a mistake. He successfully rolled a Bowser K-4, which is a very heavy loco, onto my concrete floor. He pushed this thing over 3 feet to make it hit the floor! He did all of this simply for attention, as when he was in here by himself, he would curl up into one of the chairs.

A couple of days with a water pistol has broke him of this! Now he just comes in and curls up into the chairs, and even likes to curl up into my lap while I'm at the workbench.

In case your interested, he is a "ragdoll" cat. They do crave attention and if they feel they are being ignored, they will call attention to themselves by generally knocking something to the floor! Then try to look so innocent!

LOL, not that the train broke. But I can picture the cat doing it in my head since mine do the same. Our tiny one, Mona does the samething when she wants to be fed, not when its feeding time for all 4 cats. She'll wind up and hit it like its baseball and fling it off the table or counter.
 
LOL, not that the train broke. But I can picture the cat doing it in my head since mine do the same. Our tiny one, Mona does the samething when she wants to be fed, not when its feeding time for all 4 cats. She'll wind up and hit it like its baseball and fling it off the table or counter.

I bet she has a look of real satisfaction on her face when she does that LOL!
 
Is you cat on the layout now? If so, I would start keeping kitty out and off the layout so the cat knows he is not allowed up there when you get the scenery on. Might as well start teaching the cat now.
 
Growing up, you could easily tell when the cats hit the train table, the cars were toppled over. Now that I have kids of my own, I have realized the cats found a safe place from young boys.

Perhaps the trains smell like cardboard boxes?
 



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