A LONDON marketing executive who terrified train passengers by pulling out an antique double-barrelled shotgun on a railway station platform yesterday won his legal battle to prevent the #40,000 family heirloom from being destroyed.

But Alexander MacKinnon was fined #5000 and ordered to perform 200 hours of community service after admitting being drunk in charge of the weapon last September.

The gun, a much sought-after Purdey which belonged to MacKinnon's grandfather, is one of a pair.

It was seized by police when MacKinnon, 27, was arrested on the platform of Crianlarich station in west Perthshire after being put off a Glasgow-Fort William train for smoking.

Drunken MacKinnon terrified passengers and crew by demanding to be allowed back on the train, and pulling the stock and barrel of the 12 bore gun out of its leather case.

MacKinnon appeared for sentence Stirling Sheriff Court yesterday after pleading guilty at at earlier hearing to placing people in fear and alarm at Crianlarich railway station on September 16th by pulling the stock and barrel of the weapon out of its leather case.

He also admitted being drunk in charge of the weapon.

Sheriff Alexander Eccles rejected a call from depute fiscal Valerie Barber-Fleming for the weapon to be forfeited.

Sheriff Eccles said he did so ''with some reluctance'' because the high value of the gun would have made fortfeiture and destruction ''a draconian penalty''.

Defence agent Alasdair Murdoch told the court that his client, formerly of Finborough Road, London, now of Clarendon Crescent, Edinburgh, had been at a party the night before the incident and admitted that he was still drunk.

The court heard it claimed in evidence in December that MacKinnon had pointed the gun at the terrified ScotRail guard after being asked to leave a the train at Crianlarich because he wouldn't stop smoking.

The December proceedings were adjourned when the court was told that MacKinnon's father had died suddenly.

The accused later changed his plea.

Outside the court yesterday, MacKinnon said he was pleased that the gun would remain in his family but he described the sentence as ''a bit steep''.