Catbrae is a fictitious station on the West Highland branchline to Killin. This line had a severe weight restriction imposed on it in its actual life. It is supposed here that tourist and other traffic has kept the line open, but in an economic form, i.e. truncated to Catbrae. In fact a very short part of the line is still in use. It supplies a timber processing yard.
The model is to the common worldwide scale of 1:87 or 3.5mm/ft. Some of the stock is scratch built and much is bashed from commercial items. The locomotives are modified Lima Class 33s, a model made first to this scale, running on American Athearn mechanisms. One of the aims of this project was to see how easy British 1:87 could be. The track is readily available Peco Streamline Finescale. The buildings are all made from other scale items (OO & N), the signal box being a modified Wills ground frame box in OO. The station is "kit-bashed" Dapol.
[This layout has been retired. The exhibition details were as follows: "HO standard gauge British, West Highland. 1970s. Size 3m x 21" overall. Front viewing, end operation. Self supporting, no barriers required. Power on socket 13A. Lighting in lid of layout 300W. Insurance value £1000."]