Rapido Trains UK Special Announcement No.3

©2024 Rapido Trains Ltd

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.

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 Bluray DVD. 

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

(RRP £199.95 for DCC Ready and £304.95 for DCC SOUND)

(RRP £114.95)

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

Each pack is available to pre-order now direct from Rapido Trains UK or from any Official Retailer.