Ivor the Engine

Ivor the Engine
from Ivor the Engine (1959). Ivor with Jones the Steam on footplate.
Created by	Oliver Postgate
Narrated by	Oliver Postgate
Country of origin	UK
No. of episodes	32 (1959 b/w) 40 (1975-1977 colour)
Production
Running time	10 minutes per episode (b/w) 5 mins per episode (colour)
Release
Original network	ITV/Associated-Rediffusion BBC
Original release	1959 1975 – 1977

Ivor the Engine is a British children's animation by Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin's Smallfilms company. It is a children's television series relating the adventures of a small green locomotive who lived in the "top left-hand corner of Wales" and worked for The Merioneth and Llantisilly Railway Traction Company Limited. His friends included Jones the Steam, Evans the Song and Dai Station, among many other characters.

Having produced the live Alexander the Mouse, and the filmed The Adventures of Ho for his employers Associated Rediffusion/ITV in partnership with Firmin, Oliver Postgate and his partner set up Smallfilms in a disused cow shed at Firmin's home in Blean near Canterbury, Kent.

Ivor the Engine was Smallfilms' first production, and drew inspiration from Postgate's World War II encounter with Welshman Denzyl Ellis, a former railway locomotive fireman with the Royal Scot train, who described how steam engines came to life when you spent time steaming them up in the morning. Postgate decided to locate the story to North Wales, as it was more inspirational than the flat terrain of the English Midlands. The story lines drew heavily on, and were influenced by, the works of South Wales poet Dylan Thomas.

Ivor the Engine was filmed using stop motion techniques, animation using cardboard cut-outs painted with watercolours.

The series was originally made for black and white television by Smallfilms for Associated Rediffusion in 1958, but was later revived in 1975 when new episodes in colour were produced for the BBC.