Lights, Kitchen and Clean Windows

All weekend on the carriage with an overnight in comfort really moved a few projects along. Firstly, I got some lights installed.

One of the lights and its switch

The lights themselves come from an old WA carriage (I think) while I managed to get the switches from an old wares store.

Both lights on at night

While the intention is for them to be bedside reading lights, they put out enough light to adequately illuminate the whole room! A big thanks to Sol from the Finescale Modellers who wired them in for me.

I also spent some time clearing out the bathroom area in preparation for getting some work done there.

On the back of this bulkhead you can see the wiring for the lights.

 It's a small space that is difficult to photograph but, when finished, will have a composting toilet, shower and pull-down sink in the corner.

Still some stuff to move out!

 Then it was time to turn my attention to the kitchen area.

Masking off the edges

Lots of finishing and detailing jobs to do here. This weekend I put the edges on the bench tops. These are Silky Oak which should offset nicely against the Rosewood tops. First I masked up the top edges. I did this for several reasons, not least of which was to be able to make a mark on the Rosewood that I could see! The masking tape also helps protect the Rosewood's fine finish while fitting the edges and was instrumental in working out how to cut the most accurate angles.

The edges held in place by masking tape and clamps. Photographed at night!

The edges are glued in with bisquit joins for added strength. I've left them taped and clamped in for the week to really strengthend the joins before revealing them.

Another odd kitchen job was installing the slide out bin.

In the open position under the draining board

This required two hefty supports underneath to raise it up over the kick boards.

There were several other small jobs but probably the most significant was cleaning the windows on the northerrn side. This is a job probably best appreciated from the inside.

The winter sun now streams in the cleaned windows.

Last year I sprayed this side of the carriage with a sacrificial anti-graffiti material and the over-spray onto the windows created a frosted look.Now we can see out again!

So that's it for another week. My intention next weekend is to spend a day putting in some basic framework in the bathroom that will allow the wiring-in of some more lights for both the bathroom and the dining area.

Drawers

Intermittend heavy showers meant some restrictions on what I could do this weekend but I was able to get a set of drawers installed. Most of the time was spent carefully setting up the side walls that the runners are mounted on - they have to be just right for the drawers to work properly.

Closed

The drawers themselves are kits from Bunnings and I hate the white draw fronts. In time I will replace them with something bespoke that fits into the design of the rest of the kitchen but, for now, these will have to do.

Open

Also managed to run the gas supply for the stove out through the floor so that the gas bottle is now outside the carriage and started to set up some blocks for the sliding waste bin to stand on.

Next weekend I'll be on the carriage by myself staying overnight so I should have much more to report next week!

Two day's work

I've been on the road for work for most of the last two weeks so, not only had I not had the chance to work on Clarabelle, I had wracked up some time in lieu. So, with family obligations keeping me busy on the Saturday, I was able to head up to the carriage on Sunday and stay the night, working all day on the Monday.

I got a lot done but, as usual, not a lot to show for it! Most of Sunday was spent glueing the top down on the kitchen, and painting and varnishing the cupboard space underneath.

The kitchen is now mostly functional including some pull out shelves just visible in the corner under the kettle.

Among the odd-jobs in the kitchen area was the plumbing in of a S-trap and pipe for the waste water which now drains under the carriage. Eventually I'll put a container under there with a tap and hose so I can use the waste water to water a small line of shrubs on that side of the carriage.

Monday morning and the first use of the stove was to make a cup of coffee!

Overnight and Monday morning were particularly cold - well it is winter! I needed to sand off the top of the entry door because it had started to stick badly - probably having swollen with recent rain. And, once I had the sander out, I thought I'd also sand back a small area close by that needed some attention. One thing led to another and I ended up preparing two whole panels on the end of the carriage!

Two panels sanded back, rot scrubbed out and new filler added.

After scrubbing out some rot with a wire brush, filling where needed and sanding that back, I had time for a coat of 3-in-1 and a top coat of Capsicum Red.

The section when finished

I really need to go over this whole side again because it is the wrong colour and the previous paint hasn't stuck very well in some areas. There's always more work to do when you've got a carriage to restore!

Bench Tops

I thought this would be a straight forward job and it was, but a lot more hand-sawing and adjusting than I bargained for.

One problem is that the finish is such a high gloss, it's almost imposssible to photograph!

This past weekend I spent a day installing the bench tops in the kitchen area I’ve been working in over the last few weeks. In an earlier blog I made mention of getting a hold of some solid Rosewood flooring and even did a test fit of a few pieces. 

More glos problems but the warm red of the Rosewood shines through

It turned out to be a lovely wood to work with and the tops soon took shape. Being flooring the tongue and grooved edges added to the strength, interlocking the pieces into a flat and durable surface. 

The stove is a freebie second hand from a mate in Sydney, David Murrell. I've had it converted to LPG

The fiddling came in getting the first piece cut to accommodate the window surrounds and the second piece so that it fits relatively snugly up against the splashback (which isn’t as square or flat as it appears). Then there was some fiddling about to get the holes right for the sink and stove but it all came together well.

The sink is straight from Bunnings!

Next job is to trim the edges and finish them with some Silky Oak as an edging timber. When all that’s done it should look pretty good, don’t you think?

More kitchen

Worked pretty hard yesterday in the kitchen area connecting up the two powerpoints and then building in the framework for the benches. These are all 24x42mm Maranti which is readily available through Bunnings and easy enough to work with.

Also added two blocks to the floor of the fridge cabinet to raise it up a bit and give better ventilation

I’ve tried to set up a strong structure which needs some cladding in Silky Oak to finish and all the joints are half-joints buttressed underneath. The apparently random spacing of the stretchers is to accommodate the stove and the sink both off which will be let into the bench top.

Wiring in the two powerpoints involved sending Chester and his mate Lachlan under the carriage to feed wires through gaps and tuck them up out of the way

So next week I can start putting the top on!

New Fridge

This week Chester and I went out late on Saturday afternoon and stayed on Clarabelle overnight so I was able to get in a good full-day’s work on her on the Sunday. Having said that, there’s not a lot to show for a day’s work!

The most obvious difference is the installation of the new fridge which has a glass front and a cool blue light inside. I thought this style of fridge, which I sourced through a company that specialises in fridgesfor pubs was more interesting and funky than the more traditional domestic whitegoods type mini-fridge. 

Most of my time was spent filling then sanding the walls around the windows at the back of where the kitchen bench top will be and you can see that in these pics. I also installed two power sockets, which have yet to be wired in.

Splashback

No blog last week because I was on the road driving to Sydney and back (3500km in a week!). Not only did I have to drop off those batteries I mentioned earlier but I had a few bits and pieces to pick up for Clarabelle along the way. 

I stopped at Zig Zag Railway and picked up some more locks and door furniture that I need to open the two doors on the northern side as well as some new matchboard to replace patches of rotten stuff along the sides and ends of the carriage. I also picked up a large container of the special gloop that I use to create a waterproof membrane on the roof (enviroclad) because I figure that it’s been two years since my last coat up there and perhaps she’s due for a new coat.

I also picked up two boxes of solid Rosewood flooring that I intend to use for bench tops in the kitchen. It took some time to both decide which timber to have on the bench tops and then to source it. I wanted a dark timber to offset the lighter Silky Oak. I did think of Jarrah but always had a reservation that it is a timber from WA and unlikely to have ever been used by QR. 

Then I was mucking around with a setsquare and spirit level I have that are from the original QR carriage workshops at Ipswich. Both are made of brass and Rosewood, which got me thinking. Rosewood is a hard, dark timber readily available in Queensland so I could argue that it would have been used on QR carriages. A bit of an internet search identified a company in western Sydney that made solid Rosewood flooring (although I think it’s from New Guinea) and arranged to pick up some while in the east.

So last weekend I set about using this beautiful timber, not as a benchtop (yet), but as a splash back across the carriage behind the seats in the dining area.

As you can see it is a beautiful timber and the top surface had been finished to a high gloss with a polyurethane varnish. Because it’s flooring it’s tonged and grooved so it slots together nicely. It’s very easy to work with and I’m impressed with the results.

You can also see that I installed the kitchen end that I fabricated a few weeks ago. A good fit into the space and robust enough to provide good support for the back of the seat. Later in the day I gave this a coat of 50/50 varnish and turps to start that process of making it look special.

Impatient as ever, I laid some of the Rosewood flooring out where part of the bench top will be just to get an idea of what it will look like. At this stage I have not varnished the Silky Oak woodwork underneath so the finish between the two is a bit awkward and I have a few more coats of white to put on the inside of the cupboard space but I think you can see that this looks like it will all work out very well!

Test fitting of some of the Rosewood benchtop

The next step here, before I can go ahead and put the bench tops in, is to finish the wall behind. That’s a matter of filling, sanding and painting but will slow things down a bit because I’ll have to set up dust and paint traps to contain the mess. I also really ought to get to work on some sealing jobs on the outside of the carriage but last weekend was a bit too windy to work outside comfortably. 

So many jobs to do, so little time to do them!

The kitchen takes shape. The stove is just resting on the space for the
 fridge. Eventually it will be set into the benchtop against the
 recently-installed splashback.