Wilbert Awdry
While making a documentary about British steam trains in August 1979, Allcroft met the Reverend Wilbert Awdry, author of "The Railway Series" of children's books. She said, "It really didn't take me long to become intrigued by the characters, the relationships between them and the nostalgia they invoked." She told him that she wanted to bring these stories to life and made an arrangement to secure certain rights through his then-publishers Kaye &amp; Ward.