Do you run your trains in the Garage?

Very nice.

I hate Snakes !   Especially poisonous ones !! 

A Dead Snake is a good snake !  so is dead spiders !! 

Eastern Cottonmouth Water Moccasin.  Very poisonous.  Tail buzzed like a rattlesnake.

Had to deal with it before my breakfast.

Mannyrock

20 X 20 garage with a 25 X 25 octagon addition and two level passenger station extension.

          I share the concern over snakes and other intruders.  My last home had a garage enlarged for the RR in which I had foamed  all the walls to keep critters outside.  Foaming the walls also eliminated road noise.

The garage door was replace with fully sealed T-111 siding.

From about 2007-2011....

In 2011, I moved inside with a Mianne Benchwork layout.....

Peter

Mice, chipmunks, voles, raccoons, skunks, squirrels, bats, deer, bear, and moose… but no poisonous snakes north of Button Bay thankfully!

Jon

That is not a water moccasin, it is a black rat snake. Very common, and very harmless. They have been known to rattle their tails when approached.

I had the same black rat snake in my garage last year. Thought it was a cotton mouth and killed it out of fear. Still feel guilty as they are harmless. Maybe yours just wanted to see the trains run.

Snakes... why did it have to be snakes?

Chris,  perhaps you are right.  But its head was decidedly triangular, which you can't see in the picture because of the angle, and its underbelly was mottled brown, so not like the dozens of other  common  blacksnakes I have dealt with in the past.   Still, perhaps a black rat snake is different than a black racer, so maybe you are right.  Thanks for the info!   :-)

Either way, he had been crushed in half by getting caught in the roller wheels.

Just saying, watch out for snakes if you reach under  your table in a garage, or up on a shelf to get a stored loco.

Mannyrock

@Scrambler81 posted:

That is not a water moccasin, it is a black rat snake. Very common, and very harmless. They have been known to rattle their tails when approached.

Yes Black snakes will rattle their tails like a Rattlesnake. It's their defense mechanism. I had one in my house and went to grab it to put outside and it rattled at me. Needless to say he died before I found out they rattle but Black snakes are good here in North Carolina. They keep the Copperheads away.

Brad

Again, watch out under the train table. Even a large blacksnake, though "harmless", will bite you, as I unfortunately found out when I was 11 years old.   You'll need an antibiotic and probably a tetanus booster as well.

Mannyrock

I will alert the tank crews to be vigilant for snakes......

Peter

Tried to find a good 'overall' shot of our late garage layout to no avail. Was active from fall of 2009 through dismantling in 2012 when we moved of the mountain here. Was 16 x 24 in an L configuration.

The American Flyer orange trestle bents were mine as a boy

No garage layout for me.  I hate snakes !! 

A garage  layout is intriquing, as I have a heated 20 x 24 workshop with a single garage door, but for now I'm trying to get the basement to work out, after we fix the water leakage/seepage the former owners didn't disclose.  The only snakes I'm seen here in eastern SD have been docile garter & black snakes.

That wouldn't have gone over very well with me.  I hope you chopped its head off.  I hate snakes with a passion, I don't care what kind they are.  I found one laying stretched out on my front walk up close to the porch, it was about the size of a pencil,  I went and got a hatchet and wack, the head went one way the body just curled up and wreathed around for about an hour, then I put it in a plastic bag and no I didn't pick it up either, a small shovel did that and into the garbage can it went over in the park where everybody  theirs dog poop.  Sorry guys I am scared to death of snakes.  I was sweeping my driveway in back of the house and saw a small one about the same size as the other one, maybe they were brothers or sisters, I beat that sucker about 5 times with a broom, it couldn't escape my fury but finally it made it into the mint plants and I lost site of it and have never seen it again.  My hatchet now is hung up where I can get to it very quickly.  I agree, the only good snake, is a dead one or one you wear on your feet, such as boots.

That was really a big snake.  I would have S'd in my pants right then and there if it was in my garage.  Just curious, how did you get it out?

Not inside the garage which is actually a workshop, but under a covered patio outside it. It is adjacent to a pond. It is a two loop shelf layout that over looks the pond on one side.

Agh! I hate snakes! That would have scared the blank out of me.

Hey Manny:

Just goes to show you......black snakes in Australia will kill you dead, if you get bitten by one.

Here in sunny Queensland, Australia we have what is called a "King Black" that will actually chase you down to bite you, and then you will die if you can't get to a hospital quick enough.

Black snakes are mean suckers here in Australia......"the only good snake is a dead snake".

Peter (Buco Australia)

@Buco posted:

Hey Manny:

Just goes to show you......black snakes in Australia will kill you dead, if you get bitten by one.

Here in sunny Queensland, Australia we have what is called a "King Black" that will actually chase you down to bite you, and then you will die if you can't get to a hospital quick enough.

Black snakes are mean suckers here in Australia......"the only good snake is a dead snake".

Peter (Buco Australia)

Everything is deadlier in Australia, isn't it?  Even the birds will kill you there.

Not running in the garage yet, but plan to be after I get the rest of my trains and train-related stuff here.

The snake was crushed in half and dying when I discovered it.  Center of the body trapped between the inside of the roller track and the face of the roller wheel that contacts the inside of the track.

But, upon my approach, it hissed, and snapped, and buzzed and thrashed like crazy.

The removal was like something out of "Goodfellas".

It involved a T-Ball bat, a four inch limb lopper, and then for the really close up work, a curved set of tin-snips.

And finally, a lot of pulling with gloved hands.

Water and bleach for clean up.

All before I had my morning cup of coffee or my morning train run.  :-o

Mannyrock

Yes as matter of fact I run my trains in the garage and for the time I found a Black Snake laying in a cage I have for my baby chicks I hatched out this Spring. This was late this Spring Early summer we had a cold night and he was laying in there to keep warm. Here’s a pic of a Black Snake I killed a couple weeks ago that I caught eating my Chicken Eggs in the Hen nest boxes. I like to keep Black Snakes around to keep the Mice and Rats down but when they Eat my Breakfast they have to go.