Ivor the Engine Quotes

“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 called the Merioneth and Llantisilly Rail Traction Company Limited, and it was all there was.”

“Peep, chuffety-chuff down’ to the signal-box. There was trouble, the signal was set against them, they couldn’t go past. ‘Here’s a how d’ye do,’ said Jones. ‘Owen’s not awake yet, give him a little whistle Ivor.”

“And in a shed, in a siding, at the end of the railway, lived Ivor the Engine, the locomotive of the Merioneth and Llantisilly Rail Traction Company Limited, and mighty proud of it he was too, the little engine.”

“There’s a truckload of coal for Tan-y-Gwich, and there’s this parcel of fish for Mrs. Thomas at Grumbly, if you wouldn’t mind,′ answered Dai. ‘I know, I’ll take it in with Ivor.”

“Morning Ivor, jumping cold this morning!′ Then Jones would light up Ivor’s boiler, fill his coal box, and when the boiler had begun to boil, Jones would make a pot of tea from the boiler tap, and he would sit on the step of the engine and drink his cup.”

“That was Ivor’s favorite run, to Tan-y-Gwich. He loved to look down the valley, and see the trees and the stone walls and the horses, and the big wheel of the pit spinning.”

“The little houses, all huddled together in the village, with the smoke coming straight up out of the chimneys, the sheep on the hills, and far away, bright in the morning sun, he could see the sea.”

″... and down into Tan-y-Gwich Jones uncoupled the truck and then he and Claude, the station master of Tan-y-Gwich, sat in the grass and ate their sandwiches.‘You know, Claude,’ said Jones, ‘I’ve been thinking, it must be a good life in a quiet sort of way being a railway engine.”

“It was late in the afternoon when they got to Grumbly and Jones left Ivor in the siding above the town and took Mrs. Thomas her parcel of fish - it wasn’t dirty, except for the paper, so it didn’t matter.”

“It seemed to Ivor as though the hills and the valleys, the streams, the trees and the gasworks were all singing together, singing their praises to the golden evening sun.”