Ivor the Engine

Rapido announce Ivor the Engine Train Packs! Read more in their announcement below...

‘Not very long ago, in the top left-hand corner of Wales, there was a railway. It wasn't a very long railway or a very important railway, but it was called The Merioneth and Llantisilly Rail Traction Company Limited, and it was all there was. And in a shed, in a siding at the end of the railway, lives the Locomotive of the Merioneth and Llantisilly Rail Traction Company Limited, which was a long name for a little engine so his friends just called him Ivor.’

In 1959 Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin, working under their Smallfilms name, brought Ivor the Engine to life in a series of six 10-minute black and white films. The animations were created using cut-out painted cardboard items held together with pins and Blutack. A single frame camera controlled by a small electric motor with some Meccano, a rubber band drive and a manual clicker allowed frames to be made in quick succession - a good thing as five minutes of animation required 8000 frames to be recorded. On a good day two minutes of animation could be recorded; 12 times faster than most stop frame animation studios of their time. All of this was created in the pair’s workshop (a converted cow shed) at Firmin’s home in Blean near Canterbury, Kent. Postgate wrote the stories, narrated and voiced many of the characters which were brought to life by Firmin’s illustrations.

The original series was regularly shown by Associated-Rediffusion Ltd on ITV who had acquired the original rights, until their demise in 1968. In 1975 the creators re-acquired the rights and started producing the original episodes, alongside new episodes as a series of forty 5-minute episodes this time aired over the following two years on the BBC. Ivor the Engine would see regular screenings for the next decade. Numerous books and VHS cassettes were also produced alongside other merchandise such as board games and playing cards. In 2023 a remastered version was released on Blu-ray DVD.

Following the success of our ‘Titfield Thunderbolt’ range Rapido have set their sights on Ivor - with history coming full circle and a Kent-based model manufacturer bringing Ivor the Engine to life in model form.

Working alongside Daniel Postgate under an exclusive worldwide license, Rapido Trains UK will produce two Ivor the Engine packs in OO gauge:

Ivor the Engine Train Pack 

• Ivor the Engine - with working headlamps and glowing dragon egg in the firebox.
• Two open/sheep wagons
• Full range of sounds and dialogue from the original colour animations on DCC SOUND versions
• 2D cardboard figures with bases for Jones the Steam, Dai Station, Idris the Dragon and three sheep all produced from the original animation artwork
• Fold-up cardboard engine shed and water tower.
• A brand-new Ivor the Engine story written and illustrated by Daniel Postgate.

Ivor the Engine Rolling Stock Pack

• Passenger coach
• Coal hopper
• 1-plank wagon with crate load
• 2D cardboard figures and bases for Evans the Song, the Choir, Mrs Porty and Bluebell the Donkey produced from the original animation artwork.
• Fold-up station building and platform

This range of models is in tooling and engineering samples are expected early in 2025.