Cats and Ballast

duncan1_9_8_4

duncan1_9_8_4

UK Railway Signaller and Garden Railway Operator
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My new next door neighbours have 3 cats, no i love cats, but not what they do to the ballast if you know what i mean. What is the best way to make ballast hard, so that it cannot be used as a litter tray? Any ideas?
 
Mix it with diluted exterior P.V.A. glue (and try sprinkling finely ground pepper on top).
 
I have the my entire track laid on loose granite chipping which pleased the local cats at first.
I bought one of these sonic cat scarer units

http://www.bestpestcontrol.co.uk/catwatch-ultrasonic-cat-repeller--deterrent-60ft-range-739-p.asp < Link To http://www.bestpestcontro...t-60ft-range-739-p.asp

I got the expensive version with the biggest scanned area and it worked from the first night, but cheaper versions which work over a smaller area are available. I move it around the garden so the cats dont find out how to avoid it and it has been 100 per cent successful......no cat crap in the last three months at all. Still on the first battery too.
It has a disclaimer on the box that means basically if it doesnt work..tough luck. They say cats that it doesnt work on may be deaf, stupid or plain daft!

Its worth a try, and I am not on commission.
Syd
 
Hi Duncan

I tried a 30% PVA* 70% water mix but it didn't last the 2011 Welsh winter - I've upped it to 50/50 and it's as solid as a rock, even where I laid it on damp wood (this year was very wet here) - I had real trouble chiselling it back up to add additional turnouts, but it was easy to relay to reinstate the trackwork - so also has the benefit of securing the track :thumbup: (please note: Mr. Bradley Stoke :Looser: - in other thread)

* nothing fancy - basic product in 5 litre container from ScrewFix

Regards
Rob
 
i thought about cat scarers, will they affect rabbits though? (i have a pet rabbit). pva in the ballast will go white though wont it? what about mixing new ballast with cement, as i wouldn't mind the ballast hard in any case.
 
I think they only effect cats sensitive hearing, but they have an off switch so can only need to be turned on at night when your rabbits should be safely in bed, just in case. I usually take it in when the trains are running, but as can be seen from this photo I forget sometimes!
It is the sentinel standing in the background.

The cats must really hate it as I have not even SEEN one in the garden since early September
b16c63bb6c954ff7a83d55cdc61e7bba.jpg
 
....pva in the ballast will go white though wont it?

Not in my experience, when dry it goes pretty much transparent - I will take a few pics when daylight returns if it helps your decision Duncan.

Regards
Rob
 
Lordraglan274 said:
I bought one of these sonic cat scarer units

http://www.bestpestcontrol.co.uk/ca****ch-ultrasonic-cat-repeller--deterrent-60ft-range-739-p.asp < Link To http://www.bestpestcontro...t-60ft-range-739-p.asp

I got the expensive version with the biggest scanned area and it worked from the first night, but cheaper versions which work over a smaller area are available. I move it around the garden so the cats dont find out how to avoid it and it has been 100 per cent successful......no cat crap in the last three months at all. Still on the first battery too.
It has a disclaimer on the box that means basically if it doesnt work..tough luck. They say cats that it doesnt work on may be deaf, stupid or plain daft!

Its worth a try, and I am not on commission.
Syd
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DiL has one of those?

Keeps the cats off the garden. They might sit on the fence but they won't actually jump down into the garden itself.

Like Syd, he moves it around....
 
Orange peel left around the flower beds is supposed to deter cats.

An old colleague of mine in Cambridge used to swear by dried lion dung. I guess the ordinary domestic moggy senses that this is a much bigger cat's territory!

Regarding the use of PVA; has anyone tried Cascamite glue in the garden? I've used it on Hardyard to fix down O gauge Peco ballast and it's rock solid! Tried to chisel some away for an uncoupler and it took an age to do....
 
duncan1_9_8_4 said:
I love cats,
Click to expand...
I couldn't eat a whole one though....
 
Gizzy said:
An old colleague of mine in Cambridge used to swear by dried lion dung. I guess the ordinary domestic moggy senses that this is a much bigger cat's territory!
Click to expand...

It's probably something to do with the SIZE of it Giz.

:laugh::laugh:
 
Get a nice big Rottie :bigsmile::bigsmile:.....that should do it (mind you everything else would go for a ball of chalk when the dog chases the cat!! (back to the drawing board)
 
My old cat is on his very last legs and doesn't venture out anymore, but recently, when he was just about active and he still roamed the garden, there was a time when he didn't go elsewhere beyond his own backyard and found 'sites' to make his deposits. Although he didn't use the layout ballast, he did find 'secret' areas that were near to the track etc. I had to erect thin netting to stop theses incursions.

He will be gone to the great litter tray in the sky pretty soon :( but I already have the problem of other cats now claiming his territory as their own.

I think that I will try one of those cat scarer devices as they have got good reviews....
 
dont find the cats a problem on the track and ballast, but where part of the track runs above a raised flower bed, one of the cats keeps digging holes in the flower bed and burying the track.

The worse problem is the large staff that falls asleep on the section that runs round the back of deck.
 
beavercreek said:
My old cat is on his very last legs and doesn't venture out anymore, but recently, when he was just about active and he still roamed the garden, there was a time when he didn't go elsewhere beyond his own backyard and found 'sites' to make his deposits. Although he didn't use the layout ballast, he did find 'secret' areas that were near to the track etc. I had to erect thin netting to stop theses incursions.
He will be gone to the great litter tray in the sky pretty soon :( but I already have the problem of other cats now claiming his territory as their own.
Click to expand...
We had to have our poor moggy 'put to sleep' (how many euphemisms are there?) last week but she never really bothered with my ballast - largely because what ballast I did lay in the early days of the railway has now been submerged beneath layers of moss.

I would occasionally find a calling-card (more euphemisms!) on the track but I could never work out if they were from her, or visiting cats, or even from the varied wildlife which trots into the garden from the neighbouring woodland.

My ballasting was a mix of methods mentioned above. Sand, gravel and cement, brushed into place and then held in situ with watered-down PVA.

Come to think of it - I now have a couple of large bags of 'natural' cat litter left over. Perhaps it's time I did some re-ballasting. Or is that just asking for trouble?

Rik
 
ge_rik said:
I would occasionally find a calling-card (more euphemisms!) on the track but I could never work out if they were from her,
Click to expand...

If you find a 'calling card' on the surface, it is very unlikely to have been left by a cat, more likely a hedgehog (the results look surprisingly similar). Cats almost invariably bury it, usually in the softest freshly dug earth they can find, i.e. just where you've planted your favourite seedlings. :impatient:
 
According to my little black book, planting section,
"Scardy Cat" COLEUS CANINA is an effective cat deterant, and I've also experienced good results with used-and-dried out tea bags with a few drops of "Olbas Oil" on them placed in strategic points around the garden.

I'm a cat lover (my wife makes me say that) and we have two of the little darlings ;) I just like to keep 'em off my railway (they're not to scale!)
 
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