[Click on the small photo to see the larger one.]
Well, rebuilding the Feed and Grain project got sidetracked. Sometimes your railroad tells you what it wants done. I came to a halt because the 'Old Town' of Westport told me that I had things undone. It was right. Just about that time, an old friend gave me an elevator that he scratch-built more years ago than either of us wanted to remember. I wanted to use it but it just wasn't up to today's standards and then I found a picture of a siding with elevators and an old boxcar on the web.
Well, what would happen if I made the boxcar abandoned on a cut siding by the old elevator? Plan came into being and I laid the siding and positioned the various buildings into place temporarily. I had an open space to be filled and nothing seemed appropriate until I remembered…
Col. Sanders' Kentucky Fried Chicken
Now, I keep a supply of project kits on a shelf under the layout and one of them was a Kentucky Fried Chicken store that I picked up years ago. No, they don't call it Kentucky Fried Chicken any longer. Now, it's KFC and they don't say, "it's finger lickin' good" either, but Colonel Sanders did.
This kit is built exactly as it came out of the box. I have painted nothing and added nothing except a touch of dust weathering so that the vents in the cupola will show in the photos. Before it goes on the layout, I will add people, tables, lights, paint the concrete and weather it lightly. I will also add a parking lot to the right side and it will fill the gap where the highway turns as it leaves town. 
Why did I pick the Colonel Sanders' kit as the building for this spot? It hasn't been on the market for years. In fact, it is said that Life Like never made one. They did and here it is. But I built it because I met Col. Sanders in the 1960s at a small obscure church graveyard in Southern Indiana. He and his wife were researching grave markers as were my parents. They exchanged information about the family names that they had seen in various places when the Colonel asked, 'Do you know who I am?" Now, here was an older gentleman dressed in a white suit with a goatee and a walking stick with a silver handle asking if we knew who he was. We all said, "No." Duhhh!
He was a remarkable man who knew who had the franchise in Anderson and exactly where it was. That impressed me. He made it a habit to visit his stores and eat there and it had better be right. That impressed me even more. Much about him I learned later, but he was just a friendly person in his actions. That's why this little restaurant will have a place on my railroad. I met the man and he was nothing like the cartoon character that they use today.
I hope that you enjoy this kit-based trip down memory lane. I know that I did as I built it.
Roger
