Ivor the engine is a television programme from my
formative years which I remember with
a great deal of fondness. As with most of the best kids' TV shows (
Magic Roundabout,
Scooby Doo,
The Clangers etc) it was sprinkled with a fair amount of
surrealism. In this case you had a railway steam engine, along the lines of
Thomas the Tank Engine who had a
little red dragon living in his boiler, and who managed to somehow get involved in all kinds of exciting things whilst chugging along a sleepy railway line in deepest Wales where nothing at all ever happened.
But the best part of Ivor the Engine by far, was the wonderful chuffing sounds he made as he gathered speed. It's rather hard to write the noise phonetically, but it went something like this:
Tsch ....... da ......... koff!
Tssscchh ....... da ..... kofff!
Tsssschhh .. da ... kofff!
Tsschh da koff!
Tscchhhdakoff!
TschhdakoffTschdakoffTschdakoff!