Surprise package

Look what turned up in the post today! Completely unexpected, this was sent to me by a regular viewer of this blog and a former QR employee. Thanks so much mate, some useful additions to my ever-expanding QR memorabilia collection!

Easter Weekend

A four-day weekend and lots of plans for lots of work on Clarabelle – all thwarted by rain! In a recent shower I made a quick survey of the carriage and identified some leaking windows and toplights that need attention. On top of that there are still four toplights that haven’t been installed and their timber surrounds need a lot of attention. But all of these jobs require a few dry days ahead of the job to thoroughly dry the whole area out then a few more dry days so that exposed timber doesn’t get wet before painting. Across the whole weekend there was the threat of showers. Not a big dumping but enough to stop me working outside. Bugger!

Sunday morning sun in the new bedroom

We still stayed overnight and the first pic is me in the morning with the sunlight streaming into the newly finished bedroom. This really is a nice place to be now, very comfortable and the bed now provides a perfect night’s sleep. I say ‘we’; that’s me, my son Chester and wife Abbie who came home from a folk festival early.

The fridge space from one side ...

Then there is some more work on the kitchen area including getting a second panel in on the other side of the fridge space. A lick of paint on the inside and some varnish on exposed timber and this is starting to take shape!

... and the other with the new panel installed.

Joinery

This is all new to me; joinery. More accurate carpentry than I've been doing so far as I move to the fitout of the kitchen and other areas. In fact this is my very first ever mortise and tenon joint:

 I worked out how to do it from reading some old books and thinking it through carefully. And while not absolutely perfect, the two fit together very well

This was the first step in making a panel for the end of one of the kitchen benches, one of two walls eitherside of the under-bench fridge. So another mortise and tenon joint and a couple of simpler lap joints later and this is what I had:

Installation was straight foward. I drilled some dowels into the bottom that insert into holes in the floor plate and the whole thing is kept vertical by an angle bracket at the back.

And while in the mood for fixing bits, I also fixed one of the end panels under the bed from my last blog entry. Further this all got it's first coat of varnish and is starting to look finished.

Back at home and the second kitchen panel, the one that will go the other side of the fridge space, is completed and ready to take out to the carriage for fitting next weekend. Being a long weekend for Easter I'll be staying out there a couple of nights with Chester and getting a lot done, including some more work outside the carriage now that the temperatures have calmed down from a scorching summer.

Internal details

It's now getting to the stage where I can make small bits at home and take them to the carriage to mount. These two panels are a good case in point. They are Tassie Oak frames with simple lap-joints on the corners and the centre is 6mm Marine Ply rebated into the frame. I knocked these up at home over the last long weekend and then spent some time this weekend fitting them into place. Not that this is their final configuration! The panel on the right will be fixed pretty much where it is but the one on the left will be the front of a draw under the bed at that location.

Two panels at the end of the bed

Then there was a simple shelf up high over the bed head. The brackets are from under the original seats and have 'QR' forged into them. Very heavy duty but decorative! The shelf itself is a solid piece of Silky Oak cut to shape. This was a really daggy old bit of timber before I spent some time sanding it back to clean wood. It is also slightly warped but I think that adds character! I've bolted it in place temporarily to try and pull it back to a flatter piece before I take it off again to varnish it.

A small bookshelf high over the bed head

Finally I started work on the kitchen area. This is where the small under-counter fridge will be. I'm making up two more heavy duty panels to go either side and become part of the framing for the whole kitchen area. I'm making these frames out of Silky Oak because they will be varnished rather than painted and will help to look more authentic in this high-visibility area.

The area where the fridge will be

Finishing the bed

Putting the fininshing touches to the bed, not last weekend, but the weekend before. First step was to install slats made of red gum decking strips. What you can't see here is a central support of angle iron running the length of the bed down the middle. This is supported at either end and with two posts along its length. All up a very sturdy bed! And that's my wife Abbie giving it a test!

 

Then it's only a case of putting the mattress back on and making the bed (then giving over to my 7yo son Chester for yet more testing!).

 

Finishing the Bedroom

Yesterday it got to 40C out at St Kilda and was not good for working. However, in the few hours that we were out there, I managed to tidy up some paint work, clean up the drop sheets etc, and rehang the luggage racks. Now it's starting to look like an inviting and comfortable place!

Looking west to the original end wall

Next job is to finish off the bed. I started sanding back the outside ready for more coats of varnish - that was hot and sweaty work!

Looking east to the bathroom bulkhead

Restoring the Ceiling

The original pressed tin ceilings of Clarabelle are all in pretty good condition but dirty. Very dirty! And paint encrusted in places. So restoring the ceilings is a straight forward but time-consuming job.

Before and After

This first pic shows a before and after effect. All I’ve done is wash the surfaces with sugar soap and then paint the left side with a white gloss acrylic. It needs a second coat but I think you can see that the effect of just one coat is pretty dramatic. 

Next, two photos showing close ups before and after of filling and painting. In many places there were intermittent gaps between the pressed tin and the wooden mouldings that hold them in place. These are prototypical – it was how they were originally – but unsightly and easily remedied with some white sealant and a coat of paint. Both the sealant and paint are acrylic and work well together; just squirt the sealant into the gap and, when you go over it with paint, the two mix to smooth out and seamlessly fill the joint. 

Details before

Details after

The encrusted paint is only really a problem in some details of the mouldings and is easily removed with a chisel, sanded back and painted. 

Being a tall guy, I can do all this without ladders but boy is my neck playing up today!