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This cat is 20 pounds and still thin and still growing. Maine Coon cats are like that. He walked all over my layout and disturbed nothing. I was astonished - better than mad!
Here is George the cat approving of my layout height early on in the construction process. Other than the hair that accumulates from him, I don't mind sharing my trains with him.
You guys gotta stop sharing the man-kitty porn. Dixie now gets in my computer chair and won't let me back in. Cat-drool has my keys all stuck together...ugh.
This is an old kitten who looks strikingly like George Jr.
This is Dixie since she's been checking out the man-kitty porn.
I'm a M4 guy myself. Haven't had time fer a game yet with it! It needs a Tight Bore 6.01 barrel before i go to battle! But I have had a chance to nail a few pesky tree rats though! Damn thing looks mean though!
How you guys can let your cats run a muck on your layout is beyond me?? I would be at Chicken wire and marine boat battery time if'n it were me! Bad habit to let your cats get in to...... JMO!
A good friend of mine is a cat lover, and he has had problems with cat hair in the running gear of his locomotives since he started, I continually have to disassemble his locos and cars to remove cat hair fouling his wheel sets and gear boxes. He loves his cats, so won't ban em from his layout room. He even lets them walk around on his layout. So beware of shedding cats in your layout rooms
Charles, your Maine Coon cat looks just like my Simba. He's no longer thin. At 24 pounds, there's no way I'd ever let him near the layout. His favorite form of recreation is tearing apart cardboard boxes.
I've found the small compressed air horns work wonders when the cats are getting into something they're not supposed to. Scares the crap out of them every time.
I bought an engine off Ebay about a year ago & it ran for about 30 seconds & quit. I looked all over that engine & couldn't figure out what was wrong. Then I took the shell off & there was at least a half pound of cat hair between the motor, in the motor, all in the gears & even between the motor & the frame. I had to diassemble the whole thing to get it all out. Now, it runs good. I would never allow pets in my train room. Any visitors that show up w/animals have to tie them outside.
I have to deal w/field mice & birds & lizards, but they come around at nite. LOL
QUOTE: ", your Maine Coon cat looks just like my Simba. He's no longer thin. At 24 pounds, there's no way I'd ever let him near the layout."
And his paw prints are about the size of silver dollars I'd bet too. The big fear is a make-do litter box experiment on his part. Fortunately mine is trained to respond to commands like "get down" or "stop". If that doesn't work I just say "food?" or "treat?" and he'll follow me anywhere.
If I popped off an airhorn he'd probably leave a wreakage path like Hurricane Agnes leaving the layout. And we all know how well Agnes worked for railroads.
Charles, since my layout is in the basement, Simba rarely has a chance to visit. The air horn trick works good when he's attempting to destroy something upstairs. He's actually a good cat compared to our other three. He does have quite a set of claws and teeth and can put up a good fight when we have to take him to the vet. The vet has to gas him just to draw blood.
Our's has been on the railway, it walks round the track then gets down, we havnt got anything super detailed as it's just a temp fun kids layout. If they cant break anything the cat cant either
Well, I'm not a cat person but I do have a funny DOG and trains story. We had a Lab that couldn't care less about the trains. My son brought home the Husky Pup from Hell and my boys and I were running a train with a BN Geep unit pulling. The husky sat on the floor watching it go around, disappear into a small room behind the main layout and reappear out a tunnel at the other end. It caught on quick that it would reappear and wait for it. So we stopped the train out of sight, the dog waiting for it. We didn't realize we had left a dummy version of the same locomotive on a shelf under the layout. The husky goes to the dummy and starts to push it with its nose, trying to get it to run!
After several owners, last I heard the husky was lead dog on a sled team in Vermont. It was really smart, but not a city or house dog. I glad it found it's place.
I would be at Chicken wire and marine boat battery time if'n it were me! Bad habit to let your cats get in to...... JMO!
At 24 pounds, there's no way I'd ever let him near the layout. His favorite form of recreation is tearing apart cardboard boxes. 
I bring this pic out every few months)
