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Another view of the station concourse, with Kidwelly Castle at the buffer stops on Platform 1.

 

There was a red alert in the railway room a few days ago.  One of our cats got shut in the room (she sneaked in without me noticing).  The room is a definite cat free zone.  Anyway - we had not seen her for a few hours, and could not find her, but could hear her miaowing somewhere.  I eventually checked the railway room, and out she ran. 

 

She'd been in there a while,  and took the opportunity to climb all over the layout, and explore below the baseboards. 

 

Amazingly she caused very little damage.  Knocked a few figures over, demolished the bus stop sign on Station road, slight damage to the cattle dock,  derailed a few wagons, killed a few cattle in the field next to Harewood Halt.  One of the ducks is also AWOL from the canal.  She also slightly damaged the USS Missouri which occupies the window sill in the room.  

 

She is not a small cat, so how she avoided breaking the semaphore signals, station canopies, water cranes, chimneys etc., and other bits of detail is amazing.   She also ignored some other models I have sitting on shelves in the room. 

 

She does have form - got locked in the garage overnight a few months ago, and then repeated the exercise a few weeks later (but not overnight this time).

 

I still have no idea how she got into the railway room.  She rarely ventures upstairs.  I popped in quickly to open a window, she must have sneaked in behind me and hid.  Either that or she uses a teleporter   

 

IMG_5856.JPG.4d7d5487115e19aecf1e9bc2cf1e78e0.JPG

Edited by Gopher
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2 hours ago, Gopher said:

Amazingly she caused very little damage.

 

Good girl!  When Kato gets into the man-cave he almost always goes for maximum impact, it's his way of demanding fuss or food.  His standard fiddle yard stroll leaves at least 50% of stock on it's side🤬

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22 hours ago, Gopher said:

There was a red alert in the railway room a few days ago.  One of our cats got shut in the room (she sneaked in without me noticing).  The room is a definite cat free zone. 

 

Mrs FP is the cat owner. I have suffered numerous cats sharing our various living quarters during, and before, our marraige.

 

Her various feline monsters have all been restricted to being Downstairs. Railways, when in existence, have always been Upstairs. The monsters have been carefully trained by me that they are risking at least one of their nine lives if they venture anywhere near the stairs, the outer edge of the FEZ * , let alone enter the designated railway room.

 

At a very early stage in my relationship with the monsters and the (to be) Mrs FP, it was agreed that, for each cat year I suffered, I would have one compensating cat free year. With a small gap in the late 1980's, it has be continuous cats. I am currently owed about 50 cat free years.

 

I am informed by Mrs FP that there will be no more cats after the current monster departs. Presently I need to live to 113 to get those cat free years in.

 

You can see from this that we also run an equal opportunities household.

 

*Feline Exclusion Zone.

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8 minutes ago, Fishplate said:

At a very early stage in my relationship with the monsters and the (to be) Mrs FP, it was agreed that, for each cat year I suffered, I would have one compensating cat free year. With a small gap in the late 1980's, it has be continuous cats. I am currently owed about 50 cat free years.

 

I am informed by Mrs FP that there will be no more cats after the current monster departs. Presently I need to live to 113 to get those cat free years in.

 

Ah, I can see where you're going wrong.  Nowhere in that agreement does it say you have to be alive for those cat free years😉

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2 minutes ago, Fishplate said:

 

Mrs FP is the cat owner. I have suffered numerous cats sharing our various living quarters during, and before, our marraige.

 

Her various feline monsters have all been restricted to being Downstairs. Railways, when in existence, have always been Upstairs. The monsters have been carefully trained by me that they are risking at least one of their nine lives if they venture anywhere near the stairs, the outer edge of the FEZ * , let alone enter the designated railway room.

 

At a very early stage in my relationship with the monsters and the (to be) Mrs FP, it was agreed that, for each cat year I suffered, I would have one compensating cat free year. With a small gap in the late 1980's, it has be continuous cats. I am currently owed about 50 cat free years.

 

I am informed by Mrs FP that there will be no more cats after the current monster departs. Presently I need to live to 113 to get those cat free years in.

 

You can see from this that we also run an equal opportunities household.

 

*Feline Exclusion Zone.

John, I think it is a lost battle.  Mrs Gopher is a cat lover and we have had cats in our household all our married life.  Rescue kittens, strays, etc.  The current offender is a stray who tuned up 7 years ago so we adopted her. 

 

I think you can train cats (to a certain extent), but given their psychology, once they have  been cut some slack - or given any kind of leeway , they then take it as their right to carry on doing whatever it is.

 

There is no going back.  It is a war of attrition and, I am always on the losing side.  We have three of them, luckily the other two are 16 and 17 years of age so show little interest in being mischievous. Although the 17 year old (who has chronic kidney disease) still has his kitten moments.  Actually I have just come back form retrieving the 16 year old, who buggered off this morning  into the neighbouring fields after some wild life. 

 

Having said all that I would not be without them.  Mrs Gopher has converted me to being a cat lover     

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6 minutes ago, Gopher said:

The current offender is a stray who tuned up 7 years ago so we adopted her. 

 

Mrs FPs remaining offender is the result of her being sucked in by a stray. It was pregnant, as we later found out. Having farmed out 5 of 7 kittens to other gullibles in the village and surrounding areas, Mrs FP said to me "I can't choose which of the last two kittens to keep with their Mum". 

 

Guess how that conversation subsequently went. . . .🤔

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44 minutes ago, Gopher said:

Actually I have just come back form retrieving the 16 year old, who buggered off this morning  into the neighbouring fields after some wild life. 

Should've let it be...

 

44 minutes ago, Gopher said:

Mrs Gopher has converted me to being a cat lover

A wise thing to say.

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This is one of my dodgy photos of part of the layout not visible from normal viewing angles.  End of coal road, behind the loco crew mess, with a 9F blocking the view.    

 

20240630_133241.jpg.98e1ca1de684f93d0f00d9d342462233.jpg

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I thought I'd try and photograph some parts of the layout not normally seen (which is a challenge given lack of accessibility, my dodgy photo skills and lack of camera equipment).

 

Anyway - here is a before and after shot of the diesel refuelling point.  When I looked at the first photo it really bugged me.  The tank just looked a bit naff.  It has looked like this for years, and was on Dewchurch 2, so a bit odd it is only now annoying me.

 

Second photo shows I do occasionally do some modelling - even scratch building.  Life is not all running trains and taking photos.  I still need to bed the base of the tank into the ground or add some more small vegetation to hid the gap.

 

I built a wooden frame around the legs of the tank.  Then used some left over Redutex sheets for the brick work and paving under the tank.  Added some Wills Platform edging to the top of the brickwork.  Brushed diluted Tamiya NATO black over the tank to tone down the crude rust weathering. 

 

Is it proto-typical ?  Probably not, but at least it looks a bit more realistic.    

 

20240630_133658.jpg.4cb7fdf23fdafe5b574386b0827c605b.jpg

 

20240706_130433.jpg.582edb35fda18eebc11e7e61d8d261f3.jpg

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