Station Cats

[waterboo]

Brundall Gardens also has a black and white cat belonging to a gentleman who lives alongside the railway. He likes to rest on the track, and moves when he can detect the humming/vibration of the railway, indicating an incoming train.

 

[Dougal2345]

There's one at Loughborough on the GCR who is a bit of a personality and wonders around the engine sheds quite happily.

I remember meeting him on my only visit there... I squatted down to stroke him and he unexpectedly climbed onto my knees.

There are a couple of very friendly cats that frequent Sway Station, getting to sit on the staff side of the ticket office window

 

[ffm]

Liverpool South Parkway's cat

 

[Marie Collins]

Tabitha, the sweet cat at Borough Green & Wrotham station. died of kidney failure on Monday, just short of her 12th birthday.

 

[LowLevel]

RIP puss.

The thing with railway cats is that they tend to turn up and stay a very long time indeed. However when they do pass away, it's not at all unusual for another to turn up, albeit with a bit of delay on occasion - they seem to be able to sense a good home pretty well and the railway seems to suit them.

The GCR is a good case in point - it's very rare for Loughborough to be without cats. Long standing shed resident Stanier passed away and now another one known as Jumble has turned up.

The operations department based at the station also have a cat, a large, fat and very friendly female tabby glorifying in the unusual name 'Onslaught'. Again, she just turned up one day and decided to stay - no chip or collar etc. She has a big stash of food and is well looked after by the full time operations team in the week and the duty traffic managers and guards at the weekend.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

I do like the unusual names, the previously mentioned Denby Dale squatter (now sadly keeping the sky clear of rodents!) I had unofficially named "Daniel Kitson" after that village's most famous native.

 

[Spankthemonkey]

Coleshill Parkway has at least one. The overnight security chap feeds it on the carpark side.

 

[james60059]

I heard last year that Fishguard & Goodwick (the old station) once had a resident cat, I wonder if the new station has one now?

 

[Marie Collins]

RIP puss.

The thing with railway cats is that they tend to turn up and stay a very long time indeed. However when they do pass away, it's not at all unusual for another to turn up, albeit with a bit of delay on occasion - they seem to be able to sense a good home pretty well and the railway seems to suit them.

The GCR is a good case in point - it's very rare for Loughborough to be without cats. Long standing shed resident Stanier passed away and now another one known as Jumble has turned up.

The operations department based at the station also have a cat, a large, fat and very friendly female tabby glorifying in the unusual name 'Onslaught'. Again, she just turned up one day and decided to stay - no chip or collar etc. She has a big stash of food and is well looked after by the full time operations team in the week and the duty traffic managers and guards at the weekend.

Yes. They tend to be homeless until then and there will always be a stray wanting a warm waiting room with food and drink on tap and treats and cuddles without demand.

Tabitha wasn't a stray though. She lived since she was three months old with her brother and sister (who never wandered from the garden but died a couple of years ago) litter mates, along with a dog, in one of the houses by a fence siding onto the north-bound platform. Her owners said that because she was small she was bullied more by her brother than her sister was and so she increasingly spent her days away from home, at the station since she was about a year old. Initially shy of the people there but quickly becoming sociable with them. She was also welcomed by the cab office next to the station (they even had a bed and scratching post there for her) until it changed hands and the new owner didn't like cats so insisted that the staff kicked her out if she tried to go in there. The station manager and his partner had made sure since then that she always had food (she would call in for breakfast even if she'd already had breakfast at home), water and a bed at the station, though her favourite places were on the platforms when the weather was good, or on people's laps or on top of the station's charity bookstall in the heated waiting room when it was cold.

She had more than her fair share of adventures over her ten years at the station. When she was very young, she jumped on a train and staff at the station (two stops down the line) that she ended up in recognised her and called the station manager at Borough Green & Wrotham to come and collect her. Almost two years ago, she was taken by a girl who had seen her several times wandering around the station and had thought she was a stray. She spent three weeks in the Medway Towns until the girl who had taken her saw a newspaper report about it and realised that wasn't a stray. Then, at the end of September last year, some idiot (caught on CCTV but not a local) thought it would be funny to carry her onto the train and drop her off at another station. It was over two weeks before she was found again. No thanks to the chip that had been implanted in her following her abduction in 2016 as that was found to say that she was a dog living in Liverpool! Please always doublecheck that chips have the right information relating to them. The staff that enter the data are not infallible.

There is word around the village that she was poisoned after she left the station on her last evening on Sunday 14 January and that that is what led to her death the next day from sudden kidney failure. I hope that's not true. If it is, whoever did it does not want to be found out or they will be run out of the place, believe me. She was a little local celeb and so loved by her owners, the station staff, commuters, children from local secondary schools who travelled to them by train, staff at the neighbouring stores and many others in the village that they'd take a detour to the station to see her even on days that they weren't travelling by train.

One week on, she is so missed and unlike the times that she went missing, there isn't the hope that she will be coming back.

 

[LowLevel]

The problems with cats at this time of year is that there is so much anti freeze about it doesn't need to be malicious for them to get hold of it - very sad

 

[Carlisle]

Yes. They tend to be homeless until then and there will always be a stray wanting a warm waiting room with food and drink on tap and treats and cuddles without demand.

Tabitha wasn't a stray though. She lived since she was three months old with her brother and sister (who never wandered from the garden but died a couple of years ago) litter mates, along with a dog, in one of the houses by a fence siding onto the north-bound platform. Her owners said that because she was small she was bullied more by her brother than her sister was and so she increasingly spent her days away from home, at the station since she was about a year old. Initially shy of the people there but quickly becoming sociable with them. She was also welcomed by the cab office next to the station (they even had a bed and scratching post there for her) until it changed hands and the new owner didn't like cats so insisted that the staff kicked her out if she tried to go in there. The station manager and his partner had made sure since then that she always had food (she would call in for breakfast even if she'd already had breakfast at home), water and a bed at the station, though her favourite places were on the platforms when the weather was good, or on people's laps or on top of the station's charity bookstall in the heated waiting room when it was cold.

She had more than her fair share of adventures over her ten years at the station. When she was very young, she jumped on a train and staff at the station (two stops down the line) that she ended up in recognised her and called the station manager at Borough Green & Wrotham to come and collect her. Almost two years ago, she was taken by a girl who had seen her several times wandering around the station and had thought she was a stray. She spent three weeks in the Medway Towns until the girl who had taken her saw a newspaper report about it and realised that wasn't a stray. Then, at the end of September last year, some idiot (caught on CCTV but not a local) thought it would be funny to carry her onto the train and drop her off at another station. It was over two weeks before she was found again. No thanks to the chip that had been implanted in her following her abduction in 2016 as that was found to say that she was a dog living in Liverpool! Please always doublecheck that chips have the right information relating to them. The staff that enter the data are not infallible.

There is word around the village that she was poisoned after she left the station on her last evening on Sunday 14 January and that that is what led to her death the next day from sudden kidney failure. I hope that's not true. If it is, whoever did it does not want to be found out or they will be run out of the place, believe me. She was a little local celeb and so loved by her owners, the station staff, commuters, children from local secondary schools who travelled to them by train, staff at the neighbouring stores and many others in the village that they'd take a detour to the station to see her even on days that they weren't travelling by train.

One week on, she is so missed and unlike the times that she went missing, there isn't the hope that she will be coming back.

That’s a very interesting and mostly very refreshing post, It’s easy to assume increased health & safety and formalisation of many workplace environments nowadays mean very few of these sort of cats can still happily exist

 

[tsr]

As far as I know, the Tonbridge station cat is still going strong. She was certainly lounging around the station in December. No entry to the PNB point (as it has kitchen facilities) but the rest of the station is well within reach. Including lying cunningly in the very middle of the walkway between the Down side lift and the platforms, right in the way of anybody trying to sneak past her...

 

[K.o.R]

I remember three station cats. One was a three-legged black and white cat at Altrincham some 20 years back. There was one at Romsey, just casually wandering over the rails like he owned the place, and one at North Shields fairly recently.

 

[Marie Collins]

The problems with cats at this time of year is that there is so much anti freeze about it doesn't need to be malicious for them to get hold of it - very sad

That's true. It happened to a friend's cat but his home was on a residents parking road. It would be difficult to see where Tabitha could have come across accidentally spilt anti-freeze between the waiting room and the fence.

 

[Adlington]

Railway and Station Cats from Britain (as of 2010)

 

[GaryMcEwan]

Hyndland in Glasgow also has their own cat, complete with Twitter page and Scotrail badge...https://twitter.com/HyndlandStCat

https://twitter.com/HyndlandStCat/status/923808544692097025

 

[Marie Collins]

As far as I know, the Tonbridge station cat is still going strong. She was certainly lounging around the station in December. No entry to the PNB point (as it has kitchen facilities) but the rest of the station is well within reach. Including lying cunningly in the very middle of the walkway between the Down side lift and the platforms, right in the way of anybody trying to sneak past her...

Her name is Sapphie (used to be Sapphire) and she's still around. She lived across the road from the station but her owners left her at the station when they moved. She's now 10 years old.

 

[Adlington]

North Yorkshire Moors Railway, Grosmont engine shed cat Brian 'Moony'

 

[Marie Collins]

Hyndland in Glasgow also has their own cat, complete with Twitter page and Scotrail badge...https://twitter.com/HyndlandStCat

https://twitter.com/HyndlandStCat/status/923808544692097025

Aawh! Sweet. Tabitha had her own Facebook page. Hermes went missing just before Christmas, didn't he, and was found in the New Year? I wonder where he spent Christmas!

 

[High Dyke]

Nice to see in the linked directory that Shag, the station cat at Grantham, gets a mention. Shag was a regular amongst the spotters - usually to keep an eye on us. Sadly missed.

 

[Cletus]

https://twitter.com/Se_Railway/status/956852746229112833

It's with sadness that we report that the station cat at Borough Green and Wrotham, #Tabitha passed away last week aged 13. Tabitha had made the station her second home nearly 12 years ago when she started getting into scraps with her sister

 

[skifans]

Just seen a sign in the waiting room at Lancaster (my local station) and apparently we have a station cat, not sure I've ever seen them around or how frequent they are there, especially considering they are unable to walk. Facebook: https://facebook.com/Sir-Toby-Toblerone-443057599192070/ (sorry for incredibly poor quality photo)

 

[MG11]

The problems with cats at this time of year is that there is so much anti freeze about it doesn't need to be malicious for them to get hold of it - very sad

Yes, my cat was killed a few months ago with that, larger stations with cats though, like Huddersfield, which has Felix, should be ok because of the CCTV/Staff/Passengers/Shelter.

 

[MG11]

North Yorkshire Moors Railway, Grosmont engine shed cat Brian 'Moony'
View attachment 41893

A lovely memorial, when did Brian pass?

 

[High Dyke]

Personally I had to have my own cat (Tizzy) put to sleep this week. Still 18 was a good age.

Back to the thread though - I noticed a cat flap at Kettering Station recently. Does it still have a cat? I can't find any info on one there.

 

[mike57]

A bit off topic, but I would imagine station car parks will have traces of anti-freeze, leaky or overfilling cooling systems being the culprit, apparently as little as one teaspoon full of anti freeze will prove fatal even to a healthy young cat. They also like the taste, so they will lick it. It causes kidney failure.

 

[aylesbury]

Not quite a station cat but my 18yrs old tabby joins me in my model railway shed frquently

 

[yorksrob]

My parents cat died of kidney failure without warning a couple of years ago. I wonder if anti-freeze was the culprit (or whether the kidneys are a weak spot generally in felines).

 

[Adlington]

There is a section on station cats in this BBC report on whiskers in the workplace.

 

[superalbs]

Spotted this sweetie at Andover.