The Northern Belle – Pullman Car Warwick Restoration.

Restoration to Pullman Car Warwick.

It was a sad day when I leant the news of the Pullman Car Warwick had caught fire. The Northern Belle has always been close to the heart so when hearing the news, it was devastating. Fortunately, the fire was only to one corner of the carriage and to the corridor area.

About the Northern Belle

The Northern Belle begun back in the year 2000 when V.S.O.E (now Belmond) launched a new fleet. Keeping in theme to the sister company, The British Pullman. Each carriage was decked out in the 1920 – 1930s style. Six wonderful carriages smothered in marquetry. Each holding its own theme and in this case a castle or stately manor home. All made by my father, Bob.

In 2012, I was very lucky to be asked to supplied the marquetry and veneer panels for the new additional to the fleet, Pullman Car Duart. Keeping with the theme of the castles, Duart castle was used. It was also decked out Burr Camphor. A fabulous rich red in colour burr veneer wood panels.

It is the only place the 2 generations of work will be found together. Marquetry on the Northern Belle

Restoration

The aim with Restoration work is to repair but not so it is noticeable. The biggest challenge here was matching the veneer. Warwick is decked out in burr oak veneer. It had been over 20 years since the original veneer was purchased.

Once we had picked out the veneer that we were happy with, we set to work. All the burr veneer is joint together to create a mirror imagery. We restored where possible unfortunately due to fire and water damage some panels had to be renewed.

Unfortunately some of the panels were too severely damaged. We had to replace them with new. However as we still use the same methods and techniques from when the panels were made, they should match the originals.