Station Cats

Quite a number of National Rail stations, certainly in their heyday had, or do still have cats that roam the station. Quite odd to see that the cat uses the subway or footbridge to cross the line.

When I lived in Canterbury, the West station had a cat, that used to wait outside the buffet most mornings, and then used to mingle with the passengers and generally sit on the platforms, looking up at the canopy where birds were nesting. The cat never did try and climb the stancions!

Cats will tend to be more common than you think on urban stations!
They know where a good supply of food will be, be it leftovers from passengers or chasing rats along signalling troughs and under platforms!

I wonder if a list of LT stations that had cats could be compiled? An interesting topic.

Think an annecdote about Uxbridges came up on here a while ago? Was apparently fat, lazy, and very friendly!

There was a station cat at Barking that used to cross the live rail by jumping over the live rail, until one morning some one called him as he was about to jump and he came in contact with both the live rail and the running rail.

ISTR that one of the Farringdon cats had a fatal fall from the signal cabin window ledge.
The Kennington cat was allegedly shot by a member of engineering staff with an air rifle one night. The station had a terrible rat problem and the cat was mistaken for one of the larger rats as it ran along a cable bracket run in the dim light. Large rats would often be seen running along the cable runs in engineering hours, especially on the Northern Line.

Certainly seen a couple either scooting along platforms, Eastcote and Roding Valley come to my immediate mind, and have seen plenty of them trackside between open air stations!

I know also, from reading a book that back in the late 70's there was a cat at Leicester Square, nice brown cat...

I guess they must get used to the environment, noise etc.

Bygone because I hadn't seen a station cat except the one at Arnos Grove for several years before I retired in 2005 and also because I didn't think the allowance was still paid!

I think the Farringdon stories are one and the same, I really couldn't recall whrther the cat was run over or electrocuted, only that it was asleep and fell from the windowsill to its death, this was some 25 years ago now.

No ;D

Haha! that's nothing to worry about at all, just wait until you become a 'hasbeen' like me especially as I'm still seven years short of current official retirement age.

Don't think i've ever seen a rat on the Underground before. Seen a couple of mice once running beneath the tracks at one of the deep-level stations somewhere. Although, I've never been on the tube late at night or early in the morning, when you are probably more likely to see them.
And there are rats bigger than cats on the Tube?? I hope you are exaggerating lol.

Back to the subject of cats, I know Roydon in Herts has a station cat, and i'm pretty sure Theydon Bois on the Central has one at some point. Don't think i've ever seen any wildlife at Loughton though (although plenty of pond life!! ;D )

If you haven't seen a rat on the Underground you haven't lived, there are plenty of indigenous beings extant, pigeons, rats, mice, hedgehogs, foxes, cockroaches, mosquitos living out of site most of the day.
When I mention rats as big as cats I do not exagerate. At Aldgate the rats would stalk anyone visiting the old telephone exchange, it's the IMR nowadays. At Whitechapel carrying sandwiches and leaving a bag containing them on a bench while working was a no-no. The rats would leave their teeth marks in anything they hadn't completely devoured. One night at Camden Town back in the 1970s we sat down on a track trolley to drink our tea at about 0300 and a massive rat appeared from the tunnel cable run, one chap got up and legged it, he was new to the job!
Rats are seen in the day time, I used to work at the South Woodford training school in the early 1980s, one lunchtime I looked out of the window as it was pouring with rain and saw a large rat running along the air main, it was literally a 'drowned rat'.
At Kennington we used to have to pour gallons of disinfectant in some of the duct route joint boxes because the stench of dead rats was too strong. In some of the station rooms that I worked in the rats would come out if one turned the lights out and kept quiet for a few minutes, switching them on again would allow one just long enough to see the tails disappear into nooks and crannies in the walls! Rats of course can pass leptospirosis to humans via their urine.
At Earls Court the cockroaches were rife in the old signal school but they were seldom seen with the lights on. One enterprising school assistant numbered each one he caught over a couple of days and worked out the average infestation rate to something horrendous.
Hedgehogs used to get caught in switches and cause point failures in various surface areas, foxes reguilarly appeared at Acton town and Ealing Common. hedgehogs of course carry fleas, they don't live very well without them.
Mice generally lived in offices like Earls Court control room but I can recall several stations with mice, generally rats and mice did not seem to live in the same places and one of the Claphams had white mice living in the platform invert, they used to appear in the suicide pit in engineering hours.
Mosquitos are found in various places where there are stagnant pools such as beneath platforms, around sumps etc, I have been nipped by them at kings Cross and Liverpool Street when working beneath tube platforms.
Pigeons of course are everywhere, they are even passengers sometimes taking a train from Edgware Road to Baker Street and back again! We used to call them flying rats, they are vermin and can give people nasty lung disorders via their droppings.

Roger The Dodger was made famous in a certain video. Apparently, he wasn't impressed with NSE's performance in 1990. When interviewed, he nonchalantly sauntered up the platform, no doubt to find sanctuary in the booking office/staff room.

The CCTV must be good if it's picking up on mosquitos

As a passenger I've not seen any rats on the underground, but often see mice at places like Oxford Circus when getting a late train...

'Roger The Dodger's' star appearance was in Railscenes 'BR 90' tape. I was navigating for the guy who filmed him! Look back at that tape now and see how much of the railway then still exists! I bet poor old Roger transferred to that station cat vacancy in the sky many years ago!

I have the very video... hence my very succinct reference!

Yes... one to look back on and reminisce about such joyful days.