Sam Wilkinson

Sam Spencer Wilkinson is the current railway consultant for Thomas & Friends under contract by HiT Entertainment since 2012.

He is also the director of The Star Tugs Company Limited, which works to preserve the models from Thomas & Friends' sister show, TUGS.

Contributions

 * He requested that headlamps be permanently added to all engines, as opposed to only being seen in nighttime scenes. Despite this, some engines such as Rusty and Norman have yet to acquire headlamps.
 * It was his idea to change Rosie’s livery.
 * Re-inserted the conversation dialogue about Henry's special coal issue in the final script of King of the Railway, which was originally omitted by head writer Andrew Brenner in later drafts prior to this.
 * He added the references to several past episodes and even a Railway Series story in the script for episodes like Emily Saves the World.
 * As of The Adventure Begins, Sam was responsible for bringing back the red lining on Thomas' coal bunker, which had not been present since the third season episode, Trust Thomas, 24 years prior.
 * In the aforementioned special, Sam was also responsible for including Glynn the Coffee Pot Engine, bringing the coffee pot engines into the television series.
 * In 2014, Sam made a revised television series map of the Island of Sodor.
 * In 2015, Sam was majorly involved with the rewrite of The Thomas the Tank Engine Man (originally published by Heinemann in October 1995) along with its author Brian Sibley to celebrate the 70th anniversary of The Railway Series.

Season 18

 * Emily Saves the World (additional material)

Specials

 * King of the Railway (additional material)
 * The Adventure Begins (additional material)

Trivia

 * He met Wilbert Awdry once, which makes him one of two members of the current production team to have met him face to face, the other being Lee Pressman.
 * Sam helped out with hosting some Day Out with Thomas events on the Battlefield Line, along with dressing up as Mr. Conductor for them.
 * Sam is also a member of the Star Tugs Trust, a company dedicated in preserving the original Tugs models. Which also includes Thomas props such as Lakesider III and the S.S. Roxstar.
 * Sam briefly ran a Facebook page known as "Thomas Talk", in which he would garner input and consult people in the Thomas and Friends online fandom regarding changes they would like to see in the series.
 * He has a retail company on Facebook that sells some of the merchandise for the show.