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Saturday 3rd March
2007
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The IVAN team are always indebted
to Bill for his shot blasting abilities. Shotblasting gives a much
finer finish than simply wire-brushing. Here buffer spring and drawhook
can be seen.
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New recruit, Adam, helps to loosen
bolts on IVAN's spring hangars. It only took a few hours of heavy work
to - - -
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- - - lift three of them into the
new shed next to IVAN.
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Wednesday 7th March
2007
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One of the springs we have for Ivan
was in very bad condition. We took leaves from old scrap springs
and have cut them to size to replace damaged leaves in the spring we are
going to use. Here two newly completed leaves await tempering.
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The drawhook which Bill shotblasted
has had a coat of primer.
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Phil chips rust in between the ballast
tanks.
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IVAN's pile of assorted parts.
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Saturday 10th March
2007
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461 called for the Youth teams help
- so the only IVAN work done today was painting this drawhook.
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Saturday 24th March
2007
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Practice day for spring tempering
on small leaves. Two propane flames heat the coke bed the leaves are resting
on . . .
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...under an expert eye, Mark bashes
the red hot spring.
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Monday 26th March
2007
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The Belfast en is starting to look
better and better. On another of his solo forays, Mark got more painting
done.
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In between the ballast tanks more
Hammerite has been applied.
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The Belfast end verandah is now more
or less ready for wood.
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Wednesday 11th April
2007
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Our main grant funders, the Northern
Ireland Museums Council visited today to see progress. A good
turnout of the Youth Squad were able to explain the workings of IVAN and
demonstrate spring tempering.
An exciting day, with 6 IVANeers saw good
progress made. Firstly, this brake adjuster was dismantled, greased and
given a trial fitting.
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At the Larne end veranda Hammerite
is being applied to the underframe to preserve it.
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Meanwhile, in the workshop, larger
leaves from IVANs worst spring were being reshaped and tempered.
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The blast furnace blasting heat at
the top leaf at a tremendous rate.
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A bunch of happy men at the end of
a hard day!
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Saturday 14th April
2007
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Time to refit the Larne buffers after
their refurbishment. First, insert your descaled and preserved buffer spring
. . .
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. . . . hoist your buffer into the
air . . .
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. . . then fit your nuts and bolts.
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Mark poses beside the 2 newly refitted
buffers. He's just pushed IVAN about six feet to Belfast all by himself
with a bar specially made for the job!
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Sunday 15th April
2007
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Dave is grinding out coach bolts that
once held the wood to the frame. These will be replaced with replica
new bolts and new wood (the original wood was completely burnt off in a
malicious fire some time ago).
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Over in the workshop, the now tempered
spring leaves were being assembled in preparation for being re-strapped
(strap is just right of centre in the photo).
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Back at Ivan and more Hammerite has
gone on the underframe to preserve it from further deterioration.
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