Clatterford is based loosely on Dunmow in Essex on the former Great Eastern Railway branch line from Bishops Stortford to Braintree, and is set in early BR days.

The layout consists of a single-track branch line with a through station and a fiddle yard at each end. The line passes through a cutting in open countryside, over a river and into the station, which comprises two platforms on a passing loop, a small goods yard and a goods shed. The two lines then pass under a road bridge into the fiddle yard.

The scale is 4mm to a foot and the layout is built to EM standards with a track gauge of 18.2mm. It consists of four baseboards at six feet by two feet with overall dimensions of 24ft x 2ft. The two outer boards are fiddle yard turntables and therefore need sufficient room at the front and back to be rotated. Four operators are normally required - three to operate it and one relief operator.

All turnouts are hand built using C&L components. Rolling stock is a mixture of scratchbuilt, kits, and proprietary stock converted to EM gauge. The rolling stock consists of a mixture of pre-grouping, grouping and BR stock in grouping and BR liveries and is operated to a standard sequence.

The layout has been exhibited twice at Expo EM, at Expo EM South, at the British Railway Modelling exhibitions at Doncaster and Alexandra Palace, as well as many local exhibitions.