Ivor the Engine

The story began:

Not very long ago, in the top left-handed corner of Wales, there was a railway. It wasn’t a very long railway, but it was called the Merioneth and Llantisilly Rail Traction Company Limited, and it was all there was.

Ivor the Engine lived in a siding at the end of the railway, and his friends included his driver Jones the Steam, and stationmaster Dai Station.

By the late 1950s, Oliver Postgate had all the key ingredients to write the Ivor the Engine stories. Peter Firmin’s vision of Ivor and his country was perfectly in tune with Oliver’s and the animation was born.

The stop motion process involved hand made cut outs. Oliver remembered how painstaking and time-consuming the process was: a particular shot might take an hour or more to film in single frames; it could take even longer to set up initially. The background would have to be chosen and lined up with the camera, and the figures would need to be assembled and have their limbs attached with tiny pieces of sticky-tape and cotton.

On display in the Smallfilms Gallery are cardboard cut-out characters, preliminary sketches, character-designs, book illustrations and a variety of merchandise from the world of Ivor the Engine.

Ⓒ Image Copyright Firmin Partnership / Smallfilms LTD