A good place to stop and report on progress. The Sidelines Kitchen Car has been sitting on one side for too long so this past few days there has been a concerted effort to get it advanced to the current state - fully primed, ready for final painting inside and out, glazing, lining and adding a final few items. This may take a while as I will need to assemble a few necessities and also research the interior design (as far as it goes, the kitchen is glazed with privacy glass).

The build has been strait forward and everything ended up square with no significant problems. The all brass body certainly needs a 40 watt soldering iron but my trusty 25 watt Antex was also useful for the under frame. The roof is fixed with epoxy as it is aluminium and there is some use of CA adhesives associated with the multitude of roof fittings.

The LMS Period III Kitchen Car had a long history, some being temporarily converted for use on the Coronation Scot in 1937, while after Nationalization they came into their own on expresses like the Midlander, working with both ex-LMS coaches and BR Mark 1s. Surprisingly, they were gas powered for both cooking and lighting, the only electrical cables being the pass through ones from adjacent coaches. At 50 feet long they are shorter than other Midlander coaches. Typically they were located in the centre of the train, separating third (later second) from first class coaches. The kitchen area was in the centre with two parlors each side for serving up meals and there was also a staff compartment at one end. This is the only enclosed area with clear glazing ( though the corridor was also clear glazed).

The first photo shows the frame sitting on the two bogies, complete with partitions, the corridor being closer to the camera:

Next, the body before being sprayed with Halfords Etch Primer:'

And finally, the end of a few days and many hours work, on the turntable:

Next, I placed the Kitchen Car between a finished Sidelines Coach (First Open) and The Jubilee:

A few comments about the build so far. Malcolm Binns has been selling a wide range of Gauge O LMS coaches (Period I, II and II) as well as older LNWR coaches for quite a while. The kits are competitively priced and come with brass etch, aluminium roof, brass castings and white metal bogie sides. The bogies can be built compensated (I didn't). Couplers are not included (at least if they are I have lost mine and will be using Dapol couplings anyway). And the kit also needs wheels (I use Slaters). Cutting the aluminium roof extrusion was easier than I thought and drilling out the many holes for the brass roof fittings was made easy by mapped details in the instructions.

There is one thing I need to source and that is thin strips to replicate the canvas roof panels. Thirty years ago this would have been easy - drafting supply shops sold reels of tape of various widths. With computer drafting taking over these supplies are hard to find.

So exactly when I finally get to spray the Crimson Lake, Cream, Black and Grey outside, plus the interior trim colours, is anyone's guess. But I am in no hurry now that this stage has been reached.