St Adrian depicts a typical section of double track electrified CFF main line leading towards Brig and the Simplon Tunnel in the upper Rhone Valley of Switzerland. This line was built as single track but doubled in sections after the Simplon Tunnel opened. Our model depicts a line widened about 1960, just before ferro-concrete became the norm for new engineering works. At this point the line is raised above the valley floor to avoid the flash floods found in this area.

It is modelled in Z gauge, until recently the smallest size for which model railway equipment is commercially available. This is a dry landscape with few of the forests found elsewhere in Switzerland, but note the vineyard near the centre of the layout. The time is the closing years of the twentieth century.

Track is a mixture of Marklin and PECO. Locomotives and rolling stock are from the Marklin range. Because the motors in the model locomotives use a lower voltage than commercial models in the larger scales, Marklin controllers are used.

The viaduct is an N gauge Faller product, used because it looked better than the Z gauge equivalent. Electrification masts are scratchbuilt because those commercially available are of the wrong pattern for this line.