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 ones 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.
Working alongside Daniel Postgate under an exclusive worldwide license, Rapido Trains UK will produce two Ivor the Engine packs in OO gauge. Each pack will come in a special presentation box and will include a number of 2D characters (with bases) alongside cardboard fold up buildings all faithfully reproduced from the original artworks and animations. DCC SOUND packs will feature a full range of sounds, music and quotes taken from the original productions. For full details check out the descriptions of each product below.
Order your model now by clicking on the item below:
This range of models is in tooling and engineering samples are expected early in 2025.
With grateful thanks to the Postgate and Firmin families and Smallfilms for their permission and help bringing this project to fruition.