How to keep cats off your layout?

[Arctic]

Someone had a novel solution to this problem: let them be!

 

https://www.spoon-tamago.com/2022/01/13/diorama-restaurant-stray-cats/

 

It helped them save their restaurant business during the pandemic.

[Tony Galiani]

Japan seems to really like cats.  Here is one of the videos in a new NHK series:

Tsugaru, Where Life Begins - A Cat's-Eye View of Japan | NHK WORLD-JAPAN On Demand

So maybe it is a requirement to have cats if you are going to model Japanese railways?

Ciao,

Tony Galiani

[Sheffie]

I’m beginning to think that half measures aren’t going to work. Here, we see a possible access channel in the process of being discovered. 
 

[Kamome]

On 3/6/2022 at 5:20 AM, Tony Galiani said:

Japan seems to really like cats.  Here is one of the videos in a new NHK series:

Tsugaru, Where Life Begins - A Cat's-Eye View of Japan | NHK WORLD-JAPAN On Demand

So maybe it is a requirement to have cats if you are going to model Japanese railways?

There are plenty of feral cats in Japan plus many people seem to feed them. Certainly that is the case where I live. I would also say that you don't tend to see any rodents so they are obviously doing a good job of pest control. 

 

I wouldn't mind n scale cats, even moving cat billboards but I will definitely avoid the 1:1 scale organic type with model trains.

[Tony Galiani]

@Sheffie - I think this falls into the "resistance is futile" category.

BTW - your layout is looking really good.  Time for more pictures?

Cheers,

Tony Galiani

[MeTheSwede]

6 hours ago, Tony Galiani said:

@Sheffie - I think this falls into the "resistance is futile" category.

BTW - your layout is looking really good.  Time for more pictures?

Cheers,

Tony Galiani

 

Yes please. I want also like to see some pictures. Before any CATastrophe hits.

[Giugiaro]

Out of three cats, just one tends to jump on and randomly attack my models!
If you want to keep cats steady, one simple tip is to give them a KATO (or any brand of) bookcase for them to sit over.

Believe me! You'll have more trouble getting them out of the case than anything else! 😂
 
But besides that, my real issue is with cat fur. There's a lot of it from two British Shorthairs and a Scottish Fold.
No matter how many times I send the Minitrix Track Cleaning Car, I always end up having to pull strands from the wheels.

The DB ET425 and Pocket Line Electric Locomotive don't live very long before bogging down for cat fur on the wheels.

[cteno4]

Cat fur is the worse, I’ve even had it sucked into t gauge mechanisms! One of our club members brought me an old Tomix dd10 that was growling. It was one with the spring worm drive and when I opened the chassis the whole drive chain was absolutely packed with cat fur. His cat liked to sleep next to his little layout. I was amazed the motor could even turn over.

 

not sure if an air purifier would help, I never even notice any of the light underfur from our dog in those pre filters.

 

jeff

[Giugiaro]

4 hours ago, cteno4 said:

Not sure if an air purifier would help, I never even notice any of the light underfur from our dog in those pre filters.

 

I don't think it helps. Cat fur is quite heavy and settles quickly after shedding. I have three dehumidifiers at home and they barelly get much fur stuck in the filters.

 

My computer does though. Since it sits in the floor the bottom intake sucks up any fur that falls close to the case.

[cteno4]

2 hours ago, Giugiaro said:

My computer does though. Since it sits in the floor the bottom intake sucks up any fur that falls close to the case.

A few decades ago I worked at a natural history film studio and we had an old hp pc in the edit suite (no digital editing, just to use with logging and such). The editor that left about the time I showed up at the studio was a chain smoker. We also had a little punky Manx cat named Joe that loved to sleep on top of the big 25” trinitron studio monitor (nice and warm). About 6 months after I arrived the hp pc died and since I was the computer guy at the studio I was tasked to see what was up. When I popped the top I was treated a very odd looking interior, everything had about 1/2” of black fur growing on it. First thought was mold, but that wouldn’t happen inside a warm pc and looking closer I realized it was all black cat hair from Joe cat. I swiped some with my finger and got a nasty brown smear of sticky goo under the hair that coated everything. It was the tar from all that cigarette smoke sucked thru the computer and cat hair then sticking to it. At first we all thought it was a goner but we had very low budgets so I tore everything apart and washed well with isopropanol and cleaned it all up and reassembled and voila it worked again!
 

Although I’ve never been a smoker, that first view of the inside “hairy fur with brown tar” was a better deterrent from smoking than any of the pictures of diseased lungs they would show you in school.

 

cheers

 

jeff