Other people associated with The Railway Series were also referenced. In Dalby's books, he made allusions to himself twice on store signs (Seen in Off the Rails and Saved from Scrap) and a reference to E.T.L. Marriott, who edited The Railway Series, in Percy Takes the Plunge on a "Ship Chandlers" company sign. Peter Edwards also notes that he based Gordon's face on Eric Marriot's [ citation needed].

In 1988, his second Ffarquhar model railway layout was shown to the public for the final time and was featured on an ITN News news item. He was again featured on TV-am for Thomas's 40th anniversary in 1990. During all this, Awdry faced many battles– health problems, depression, and the death of his wife, brother and close friend Teddy Boston. Five years later, he was interviewed by Nicholas Jones for the Bookmark film The Thomas the Tank Engine Man, which first aired on 25 February 1995 and repeated again on 15 April 1997 shortly after his death. Wilbert Vere Awdry OBE (15 June 1911 – 21 March 1997), often credited as Rev. W. Awdry, was an English Anglican minister, railway enthusiast, and children's author. He is best remembered as the creator of Thomas the Tank Engine and several other characters who appeared in his Railway Series. The story "Triple Header" was the first to be written, and was based upon an incident related to Christopher Awdry at the Nene Valley Railway. The real engine involved was a blue 0-6-0 tank engine called Thomas, which was named by Wilbert Awdry and is now permanently disguised as its Railway Series namesake.This book was largely written because Awdry was unhappy with C. Reginald Dalby's depiction of Henry. He was inconsistent and often looked identical to Gordon. By having the character rebuilt, this problem was solved. The central theme of this book reflects the fact that, at the time when the book was written, there were labour difficulties on the real British Railways.

The Real Stories Database – book 23, story 2". (Real life events that inspired the Rev W Awdry). The Real Lives of Thomas the Tank Engine. Archived from the original on 14 December 2017 . Retrieved 22 October 2010. The events of this book take place in 1926. However according to The Island of Sodor: Its People, History and Railways, Percy was appointed station pilot at Tidmouth, as shown on pp 42–43 of this book, in 1949, meaning the events of this book presumably take place around that year. [2] Furthermore, it should also be noted that the same work date for Henry's accident and re-build to a new appearance - first seen in the following book - is 1935. [3] It can be assumed that this is a mistake. This story was also written for the television series and was used in the 2nd series. Thomas the Tank Engine is sent to fetch a Christmas tree, but runs into a snowdrift. It is up to Donald and Douglas to save the day for him.

The present day events of this book take place in 1969, where the Thin Clergyman (The Rev. W. Awdry), the Fat Clergyman (The Rev. "Teddy" Boston), the Small Controller (Fergus Duncan) and the Duke of Sodor (Sir Robert Norramby) found and met the engine Duke (named after His Grace: Sir John Arnold Norramby). The past events of Granpuff take place in 1928, 1947 and before 1951. And the end refers to 1965. The past events of Bulldog take place in 1904 (No. 2 incorrectly makes an illustration cameo, as his basis, the Baldwin Class 10-12-D was not introduced until WW1). The events of You Can't Win! take place in the late 1920s.