As the saying goes, curiosity killed the cat. But if you, like me, have both cats and model trains, it’s usually your layout that suffers the brunt of your cat’s curiosity. Model train layouts have all kinds of enticing chewable trees, invitingly textured landscaping, and of course, fun moving cat toys (a.k.a. locomotives). So what can you do to ensure your cats and model trains coexist peacefully?
I can hear the people out there now. “Just close the door!” Though that does make the most sense, it’s not always practical or possible. Not every train room has a door. My HO scale Cincinnati, Lebanon & Northern layout is in my basement, which is also home to the cat litter box. So it can’t be completely closed off. I have two entrances to the train room blocked off with makeshift barricades made of pet gates, cardboard boxes, plywood, and a folding screen. The third entrance, which does have a closable door, gives access to the layout via a duckunder. This less than ideal situation is part of why I haven’t done much work on my model railroad recently.
And even that doesn’t always work. My two cats, Clinchfield (pictured above) and Missabe (named for the Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range) are very curious about what goes on in that mysterious closed room. When the door to the train room is opened, one of them often tries to bolt inside. And the cat has much less trouble threading his way under the benchwork than I do, believe me.
Before I closed off the entrances, my older cats didn’t have much interest in the layout. Then we got Clinchfield, an energetic kitten. One day I found him modeling his own logging operation with my layout’s lovingly foliaged Scenic Express SuperTrees. I tried to gently shoo him off the shelf layout, but he got spooked and took off down the track like the evening express out of Cincinnati. After finally rousting him out of the train room, I started building my barricades.
My workbench is not in the train room, but in a part of the basement that can’t be closed off. Many is the time I’ve found strips of styrene or scale lumber on the kitchen floor, bearing the distinctive marks of pointy teeth. When I’m in the middle of a project that can’t be easily packed away, I’ve learned to drape a beach towel over the bench to conceal any fun-looking bits from nocturnal eyes.
I’ve been considering building an N scale shelf layout in this part of the basement. The fact that it can’t be closed off is what’s holding me back. However, I’ve thought about lining the fascia with plexiglass fences to deter leaping felines. This might work, but considering how determined my cats are, that fence would have to be pretty tall.
A sound solution
Like me, MR senior production editor Rene Schweitzer has cats and model trains. Her family’s two layouts, like mine, reside in the basement. While the N scale model railroad is behind a door that can be closed, there is no door to protect the O scale layout. Luckily, most of the Schweitzer cats have shown no interest in the layout after an initial investigation.
However, that was not the case with their cat Benny. Like my Clinchfield, Benny was very interested in harvesting model trees, as well as conducting scale cattle drives. For relief, Rene turned to a product she had reviewed for Garden Railways, the Contech CatStop (see page 110 of the April 2005 issue). This motion-activated device sends out a burst of ultrasonic sound, high-pitched enough to be inaudible to humans but irritating to cats and other critters. Although its intended purpose is to keep rabbits, deer, raccoons, and the like away from outdoor gardens (and garden railroads), Rene found it also worked well to keep Benny away from the O scale layout – at least until the batteries ran down.
Unfortunately, it seems that the CatStop is no longer sold. But there are other motion-activated ultrasonic animal repellers on the market.
Follow your nose
Bob Lettenberger, associate editor of Trains magazine, used to have trouble with his cats Kodiak and Tigger and his small HO scale model railroad. Once, a train climbing a series of loops hidden inside a mountain derailed with a crash. Looking through a tunnel portal for the source of the mishap, Bob was confronted with a pair of luminous green eyes. From under the benchwork streaked Kodiak. “I swear he was laughing as he pounded up the stairs,” Bob recalled.
Kodiak also had a habit of punishing Bob whenever he felt he had been mistreated – dinner served late, toy taken away, displaced from a nap spot. Kodiak expressed his displeasure by urinating on the basement floor in front of the layout’s control stand – “the exact place I had to stand to operate the railroad,” Bob said.
While Bob wasn’t able to break Kodiak of that smelly habit, his nose led him to a way to keep the big cat off the layout itself – laundry detergent. Bob found that the cat didn’t like the scent of a certain brand of powdered detergent, so he put a heaping spoonful into a number of hopper cars and covered the detergent with plastic coal loads. Stationing those cars around the layout made Kodiak a lot less interested in exploring Bob’s scale terrain.
Taking in the (Bona) Vista
Gerry Leone, a prolific contributor to MR and its special publications, has had four cats (named Norma, Phyllis, Irene, and Loretta) and four model railroads (all named the Bona Vista) over the last 23 years. None of the cats have ever damaged the layouts, Gerry says, mainly because he “nipped any possibility of that in the bud.”
The Bona Vista III (featured in Great Model Railroads 2008 and Great Model Railroads 2015) was built in a basement room without a door. “Then one night as I was building benchwork I happened to look up,” Gerry relates. “And there, peering out from behind an opening in the backdrop, was a little orange face – Phyllis.” Then and there, Gerry decided to add a pair of bifold doors to the train room entrance, before any breakable scenery or trains were put on the layout.
After Gerry, his wife, and the cats moved to a new home, construction started on the Bona Vista IV (see Great Model Railroads 2021). This version of the railroad was built in a walk-out den at the bottom of a staircase, again with no door. The cats were curious during benchwork construction, but they couldn’t do any harm at that stage.
Gerry tells what happened next: “A few years later I entered the other half of the room, where the scenery was finished, only to find my little buddy Irene curled up on a wetland on the layout made from comfortable, cushy fake fur. That was when I built a makeshift door in the stairway down to the den. Heaven only knows how many naps she’d already taken there during the day when Dad was at work.”
Gerry is in process of building a fifth version of the Bona Vista. The new train room has a door, but during the day, it stands open. Nonetheless, Gerry reports no feline intrusions so far. “My guess is that… neither of them has actually looked up from the floor and thought, ‘My, I wonder what’s up there?’ That day will undoubtedly come. And from then on the door will remain shut 24/7.”
Do you have any stories of cats and model trains? Share them below in the comments.
Whenever we got a new kitten, before it’s paws got hardened, I’d let it on the tracks, then turn on the power. 16v is not enough to harm, but it was not a good feeling for the kitten. Got it used to the fact that the tracks were not a good pace to hang out.
In the interest of honestly, I need to report that, since I wrote my part of this article, several weeks ago I did discover my pal Irene (shown in the picture) sleeping on my wheat field here on the new layout. I think my panic (and raised voice) were enough to keep her from doing it again, but time will tell. Cats seem to have a short memory.
When I built my N scale layout in our second house I first had to build a small room in our then unfinished basement and given we had a cat the room had a door. One day I went in to my train room to discover a mountain had been mined, evidently by minors careless with explosives. I knew I had closed the door so I was puzzled. A few dfoors later I walked into my train room to find the layout had been trashed and as a final insult, a can of black poster paint powder had been knocked over and there were little black paw prints everywhere. The paw prints also told me my problem – when I had joined my train room to an existing wall there was a slight gap between the 2x4s. I hadn’t noticed it but my cat did!
Our cat Zoey was very interested in my layout as it was being constructed. He cruised atop the benchwork as I laid track and some foam scenery. but eventually I had to close the door when operations started. He became a bit too interested in moving trains. I would occasionally bring him into the room on my lap to watch trains traveling by and then feed him elsewhere. Cats are curious critters.
Our feline, Connie, has a location on my upper deck of the layout, close to a heater vent . The substructure is blue Styrofoam, which warms up, as we all know, when touched. The section she lies on has no scenery and will probably end up being a large lake. She will sleep there most of the day, unless she hears an interesting noise.
She is fascinated when trains run but so far has not done the “Godzilla Act” with them, although she does the head bob and sideways head tilt.
She also has pulled out and carried trees from the layout, upstairs to give to my wife! (So far the scratch built buildings are safe).
My workbench and module setup are in a spare bedroom with a door. The door was never shut – until my young male cat began exploring all the goodies. The day he took a large bite out of my newly-installed, scratch built styrene engine shop roof truss was the day he was ejected. But I did not like working behind a closed door, so I installed a new, old-fashioned looking wood screen door: kept the cat out and me connected with the family. Cat #2 was an older female who loved keeping me company, sitting on a stool or mostly on my lap as I worked at the bench: she taught me new ways to paint and do modeling around her. Cat #3 now comes and goes freely and is totally uninterested – the screen door now stays safely open.
My cat Deacon decided one late night to become the Wichita Lineman. He jumped up on the layout, damaged one building (easily repairable) and then systematically pulled up all the telephone poles leaving them lying along the roadways. Now both cats are only allowed to be in the train room when I’m there.
For cats picking a particular spot (outside the box) to urinate: Try a very thorough cleaning/disinfecting and then spray the area with vinegar. The ‘theory’ is cats very much dislike acidic odors (vinegar, lemon, etc.).
I haven’t any issues with my cat so far (knock on wood). I remember reading a tip in a 1940’s Model Railroader, or some other early model magazine, that suggested using roll down window shades attached to the floor joists. The idea being pulling down the shades and hooking them to the benchwork to protect the layout when not in use from the household feline.
Great article!
My cat has decided that it’s a good idea to jump up on my workbench and drink the water out of the container I use for cleaning brushes. It’s usually pretty clean and I only use acrylics, but really? At first, I thought the water was just evaporating until I caught him up there with his nose in the bowl.
My older cats didn’t bother my railroad layout but after their passing we got a new cat that was 3 years old a rescue. I had problems with jumping up on the layout. He only jumps up in one area that was unfinished. Once I finished that area he didn’t jump up. Now he has his favorite spots to sleep under the layout and not on the top. Once I found him walking around the layout very carefully trying not to step on the details.
I don’t have a cat but I do have 5 grandchildren who are every bit as interested in Pappy’s trains! My solution has been to install a Dutch style door so I can keep the top half open while still having the entrance closed when I’m not there. I realize some cats may be able to scale the bottom half but I figured an arrangement like that might be helpful for modelers like Gerry who want the door open while inside working…just a thought!
CatStop(s) are availble on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=catstop+ultrasonic+cat+deterrent&gclid=Cj0KCQiA2-2eBhClARIsAGLQ2RlKLjxEkd6VNOCsSdIzHwy8CcDaAzmwehFxBUuSNUaOsXk3Y58tIHkaAiWbEALw_wcB&hvadid=178664361565&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=1026424&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=17703553079355690882&hvtargid=kwd-9710522761&hydadcr=15698_9884033&tag=googhydr-20&ref=pd_sl_4epf6fiqvw_e
Moses my rescue cat was fascinated by the trains. He never jumped up on the layout but would hop up on the stool and watch the action. One evening we heard him loudly meowing when I went into the train room he was sitting on the stool meowing. As soon As I started the trains up he quieted right down
evening we heard him loudly meowing.
I’ve always just put spare bed sheets (the flats, not the fitted) over the top of the layout and it protected it from curious cats when it wasn’t in use.
When I was in college, my layout in my room at home was frequented by “Catzilla”! I had a lovely fully foliated forest covering a decent part of the layout surface. When I returned home for an extended break (Thanksgiving or something), the entire forest was completely bare or foliage! I turned the scene into a winter scene that weekend.
Along with this, I also had strung “wires” on the telephone / electrical poles I had. The “wire” was made of thin kite string which was all I had available for my budget. The elastic type lines had not come out yet.
One of the cats decided to take a hike over the layout and managed to crush a few sections of the “wire” under her. The problem was that I tried to protect the layout using plastic dropcloth sheets. If one section of the telephone wires went down, they all went down, usually breaking the poles in the process. The telephone “wires” I theorized were put “underground” once I found this out. The poles were all removed.
Lastly, another thing was that while I was in college, my room (and the layout within) was used by my parents mostly for storage and the area under the layout was a popular place to put boxes and baskets and other containers. My parents’ one cat (who was a kitten at the time) decided my layout wiring on the one side of the layout made a cool jungle gym and chew toy. Again, not to my knowledge….
When I returned for a long holiday break, I fired up the layout to operate and noticed to my chagrin that the trains I was trying to operate would not work on half of the layout, along with the powered turnouts and lights in the area as well.
Further investigation showed that ALL of the wiring was pulled out and chewed up on that side. I was NOT amused and barred the cats from my room while I was at home for the remainder of the time I was there. What was to have been a relaxing break turned into a massive restoration program repairing or replacing all of the wiring on that side of the layout. I shortened the wires to keep the cat out of climbing into them and I also tacked up some plastic sheet underneath the layout to keep the cats away from my work when I was not home.
30+ years on now, I have a layout in my basement I want to get operational but the wiring is really being an obstacle as I need it to be bullet proof and also have to keep our cats out of it as well. Thankfully, no scenery is finished yet but I can only imagine what may turn up from that! Where are those plastic drop cloths at?
Keep ’em rolling!