Problem: I built my baseboards and supports from wood and plywood with no cat problems. But now I have topped them with wood-fibre board, for sound deadening and ease of working, the cat has decided this makes a great scratching surface . Being 4ft above the floor is no problem! I thought that maybe once I had put a coat of earth coloured emulsion on it, it would make it less attractive to him - Wrong! I am trying to keep him out of the room, but this is proving difficult as it is not an exclusive train room and the door sometimes gets left open. I saw back in December (Dec 21, Inspection Pit / Cats and Trains ... / Page 2 / Top post) that Graphite made a reference to something like this, but cannot find his description of the original problem. (I've searched Trainboard as best I can, but as "cat" brings up references to 'catalogue', 'catch' etc I may have missed something.) He seems to have changed the topping to a foam of some sort instead of 'wood' and accidentally cured the cat problem. What kind of foam was it? Anyone else had this problem and got a solution short of murdering the little so'n'so? For the cat behaviour experts, we're dealing with a neutered, male Siamese who is not housebound. (In fact he gets regular dietary supplements of wild rabbit** and rodent from the nearby woods.) He does have a scratching post downstairs, but he has also been allowed (against my wishes) to use one of the beds upstairs for scratching, though this is in a different room from the railway. As such indoor scratching is not prohibited which makes it tricky (but wait till he starts on my wife's favourite chair). ** Don't read the following bit if you're squeamish. Like most cats he brings his prey home for us to 'approve', but unlike many domestic cats he then usually eats the whole thing - fur, bones, ears, the lot, except for the 'green wobbly bit' of course. It's horrible in a way, but fascinating in another. At least we know he gets a balanced diet .
My cats were terrible when my old layout was made of almost all plywood. They have totally ignored the new base of pink fiber board. I don't think they have been on it once.........go figure........................... There is also the other solution............but..............the cat might not like it............!
It took a couple months to break my cats of scratching in the house, but we use squirt guns. We keep several around the house with "wet water" in them. (a drop of dish soap in each refill so the water soaks into their fur instead of just rolling off) After a couple weeks, the cats have a good respect for the squirt guns. Use a small bowl or saucer to keep the ready squirt gun in, and the cats will tune their ears to hearing you pick up "the gun". I keep one by my layout and the cats now recognise and avoid it.
A friend had a cat problem. His solution was to lay copper screen wire on the floor about 12 inches out from the legs, all around. Each of these squares were then soldered to wires, and terminated at a transformer on the ground side. Each leg was then wrapped and stapled with some more copper screen wire leaving a 2" gap at the floor. Each of these were in turn soldered to wires that terminated at the "Hot" side of the transformer. When plugged in, this transformer was putting out only about 45 volts AC which would not burn the cats, but would give them enough "jolt" that they suddenly quit "Marking their Territory" as well as sharpening their claws. He finally unplugged it, and the cats never did go back.
I too had the "cat" experience about 15 years ago. I never completed that layout and the cat eventually died and was never replaced. Now the layout is coming along in its new home.
We have always used squirt guns as Robert did to learn our cats what they are not allowed to do. I´m lucky to have my layout in the basement, with locked door to prevent any cat-intruder. One time only I found our youngest cat walking around the Sandy River station (!) without any accidents. Therefor the door is locked. A cat can open doors - I have seen it! and we have five of them! ----------------- Helge Some documentation : Our youngest cat Gustaf seems to be very innocent when he was five weeks At least he is fond of N scale like me. But now he is eight months, and not so innocent Afraid of water (Roberts idea )? No way! [ 15 April 2002, 13:58: Message edited by: HelgeK ]
Well, I have a slight "Cat" problem to add to all this FUN! HA! I've got a Hymalayian cat that before I got another family had it and they had gotten it from someone else, so it basically changed families 3 times before it was a year old. But the first family that had her, had a steel door on their basement for the basement outside door andshe tried to get out one day and the door slamed on her tail and cut it off part of the way! The cat only has a 4 inch stub tail now which gives her, her own some of personality... Anyway, I do alot of remodeling on real homes "Finish Carpentry" as well as my shop for the hobby. And at one time I got a big building to do that was nothing but take out the old drop ceiling tile and the ceiling tile tracks and replace them all the tile and the tracks. I took all the drop ceiling home and also the tracking as well being it was a renovation to sell the building afterwards. I kept all the tiles to refurbish them with egg shell white paint "which makes them new again" and being they weren't in bad shape, only slightly faded and all so... And done some spray painting on the tile tracking, being it got scratched somewhat as I took it down. And then once I had the time installed in different rooms of my home and all, and even my basement has a drop ceiling in it now, except for a large section at the furnace! Well after getting all this tile and stock piling it I had a total of 4000 to 7500 tiles! And after I did almost every ceiling in my house I ended up having a ton left over and didn't know what to do with it... So what I didn't use and didn't paint I put into my layout! Contoured and cut for small rolling hills and such. This stuff is really easy to use for scenery. So I had made a few small mountains from contoured 2 inch wide strips stacked on top each other "for the height" and then each piece glued "liquid nailed" to each other to hold in place... Well the one side of the mountain has a tunnel to go through it and with the drop ceiling it stays warm inside the tunnel. And my representation of "Godzilla" that I now call "Catzilla" when small would crawl up into my mountain being it was warm in their and all and would sleep righ over both mainlines. Well one day, in 1998 I had bought my first Rivarossi EL-5 B&O #7165 "Mallet", and was going to run it, and I did... Till it got into the tunnel, I heard a BANG, and then a MEOWWWWWW to set and see a kitten come flying out of the tunnel with the loco and train keeping up right along with the kitten... She cleared the tunnel portal and then gave a jump and crossed the entire layout in one leap. The cat came out of the tunnel portal like a shot out of a cannon and by that time it took a few seconds for the loco to get back around to me and to see that all the side rods and connecting rods on one side was full of cat hair! I took the loco off the tracks and put it back in its box to take up stairs to the work bench to remove all the hair from it and all. Then to see the cat with a few chunks of hair missing from its tail, and hind right leg and on its right side... That loco really done a number on the little critter!! HA! And believe it or not that cat till this day still sleeps in that tunnel too! BUT As soon as the lights are snaped on to the basement its down from underneath the layout and passes me as I'm going down the stairs and its going up! HA! It wouldn't be able to come out through the tunnel portal anymore shes grown to a half decent size, enough to make diesaster... Or If so, I'd have an HO scale earthquake! HA! So it comes down out from under the layout through the access hole to the inside of the tunnel.... She doesn't hang around long once the lights snaped on! She kind of learned her lesson the hard way, with fur riped out from her as she was dead sleep! Not only did it hurt but I imagine it took 2 of her 9 lives! And scared probably 10 years off her life span! Her name is "Cynderella" but all the other family members call her "Cynder" for short.. But not I.. Shes "Catzilla" to me! Just put me amind of Godzilla when he went stomping through Tokiyo Japan in the movie! Sorry I know thats not the right spelling for Tokiyo, but I'm sure you all know what I'm talking about... And thats my post for "Cats as pests" It was funny at first, before I seen my loco and the poor Cat! And now I set back and laugh, and for the cat... its a wonder it doesn't hate me but she doesn't.... [ 16 April 2002, 10:33: Message edited by: 7600EM_1 ]
I'll bet "Cynder" is for "coal cinders" right? I guess she had a "tender" behind after that tunnel incident! That's either a double portal tunnel or one skinny cat! Actually, being an animal lover myself I'd like to know how the cat reacts to you after being in so many homes before you got her? I've had Mole People in tunnels near me............now there's..............Mole Cats! Not to be confused with Pole Cats*. *Those are cats that climb telegraph poles-not the ones who are skunks. That's something entirely different!
"pink fiber board" . That's not something I've come across in the UK, Johnny. Can you describe it a bit more? (Is it an insulation of some kind?) Squirt guns is a nice idea IF you can catch the little ..... cat at it - ours definitely doesn't like being splashed, even a little bit (but has no problem going out in the rain and coming back soaked ?!!?). But if there's anyone around, this cat will be demanding attention from them and not scratching. It's not that he's clever (anything but in fact ), he's just sociable. Actually, squirts may not be such a good idea as the fibre board is very absorbent - the water might do more harm than the cat! I'm thinking about putting a spring closer on the door, as a stop gap at least, but have a horrible feeling I'll end up with the cat trapped inside the room at some stage .
Mike, "pink board" and "blue board" are foam insulating materials that come in large sheets. It's not absorbant really as it is plastic foam and water will just sit right on top. Daps right off the stuff. It's my first time working with it; all my other layouts were plywood. I swear the cats have not set foot on it at all and it's even more accesible to them than my old layout was. They were on my wood layout all the time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The stuff is so light, I can carry my 6 foot layout in one hand. It's great for digging into for streams or ruts or holes..........and I used the 2 inch thick board. More room for error and experimenting. I could kick myself for building my previous layout out of wood when I was told to go foam. It sank in the middle enough to muck up my N scale run. Maybe someone here in TB could give a more technical explanation of what the stuff is! I'm sure there might be another name for it where you live. We just call it blue or pink board.
Our cats have done more then their share of damage to various models over the years. Whenever i have a house of my own, the train room will be offlimits. benjamin
Thanks Johnny. I know the stuff you mean. I did a bit of internet research on these and it seems the blue stuff is polystyrene which has had some bad press. The pink stuff is Dow's version and they call it styrene, but apparently it is actually polystyrene like the others ..... I saw one reference that seemed to say that the blue is harder than the pink, but I wouldn't bet on that without a bit more research. I may well change to foam, but meantime I'm working on some training. I have a leftover piece of the wood fibre board that he has attacked in preference to the layout (it's on the floor and not painted). So I'm gradually moving it out of the room in the hope that the cat will 'forget' the railroad, LOL.
JT, Cynderella is my cats right name... But I spell it that way for the reason of steam "Cynders" correct... So we all called her "Cynder" for short untill she did the thing on my layout and in my tunnel... Not shes "Catzilla" HA! But when it happen she was still a kitten, she was given away from the first family when she was able to be given away from birth. Which a aunt had gotten and she had moved into another house where she wasn't allowed to have animals so she asked my mom if we would giver her a home... This all happened before she was 7 to 10 months old.... Which was a few years ago... Now shes a full grown monster! If my memory serves me right shes now like 3 or 4 years old... I'm not exactly sure... But shes a well tempered cat, not mean and as friendly as a puppy thats lost its master! Matter of fact, she going around my ankles as I'm typing this just asking for attention! And I must add, moderately clean... Shes never gotten on the table and makes good use of the litterbox... Just has this thing with stomping through/on my layout! And shes kept inside... We don't leave her out... Their quite a few cat-haters in the area so.... I'm not cat-hater, but be asured she been cussed a few times for wrecking things on the layout.... But not mistreated....
We just adopted a boxer.... 2 years old. Last night I introduced her to the layout. She stood on the couch by the layout and cocked her head, raised her ears as a little way-freight went drifting by. She stared a few seconds, and then went on to something else. I seem to recall doing the samething myself the first time I ran trains over completed track on my layout! -Kitbash [ 25 April 2002, 10:25: Message edited by: Kitbash ]
Well, I love my cats...but they just about got "coon skinned" to my wall last Saturday. They knocked my storage boxes of ALL my N-Scale Loco's and cars on the floor. Lucky for them there was only $50 of damage to my collection. I think I'm going to move that shelf away from the window....
I DON'T HAVE ANY 4 LEGGED FELINES YET.....but I agree coon skinned cats might make a perfect addition...any cats named Chessie?
Mike, Hartz products makes a spray(aerosol) that's called "STAYOFF".. It works,I know when we run the stuff where I work,my 2 wont come around me for 3 days until the stuff wears off my uniforms.Try it, might work for you..
Thanks for that rrman. That sounds like the stuff I need , but I'll bet Hartz don't import to the UK . I'll have a scout around anyway. Would you happen to know if they export, and if so what other names it might be found as?
