Britt Allcroft, a British television producer and writer who helped to develop “Thomas & Friends” based on “The Railway Series” books and its characters including Thomas the Tank Engine, died on Dec.

Thomas the Tank Engine began as a series of books written by Reverend Wilbert Awdry A line-up of railway-themed events to celebrate 80 years of Thomas the Tank Engine are under way in Gloucestershire.

As a young child, I never much cared for Thomas the Tank Engine, who struck me as creepy and coercive (though I believe the word I used at the time was “yucky.”) The book I adored was “The Three ...

She discovered the character in a series of 1940s children’s books and thought Ringo Starr would make a great Mr. Conductor on television. By Mike Barnes Senior Editor Britt Allcroft, the British ...