Roy Wilson

Roy V. Wilson is the creator of the Wooden Railway line of merchandise. He was also the head of Learning Curve from its establishment in 1992 to 1998.

He attended Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York, studying industrial design. While there, he wrote his graduating thesis on preschool educational developmental toys. After graduating, he founded Creative International in 1967. Wilson chose to largely remain independent, occasionally working on various long-term contracts with other companies.

Wooden Railway
Roy Wilson was approached by representatives from the Early Learning Centre in 1992. He was asked to help develop a wooden train merchandising line for the Thomas the Tank Engine &amp; Friends series. Wilson established the Learning Curve company in Southport, Connecticut that same year along with John W. Lee. Wilson was tasked with working long hours every week. He had to create twelve handmade prototype models of everything to send to Britt Allcroft to propose the Thomas Wooden Railway. Wilson expressed some frustration in the inexperience many of his working colleagues had with manufacturing and designing. Within a few months, large preorders were made for these new products.

Wilson had the responsibilities to design, invent, engineer, produce artwork and photograph exhibition models of the Thomas Wooden Railway products. He also assisted in pricing, manufacturing techniques, sales and marketing. Wilson additionally served as a frequent liaison to the Britt Allcroft Group and Shining Time Station.

Being disappointed with the direction the line was going and its increased use of plastic in a wooden railway, Roy Wilson withdrew from Learning Curve around 1998.

Some of his final work for the Thomas Wooden Railway was to design toys of the characters from Thomas and the Magic Railroad. Britt Allcroft sent reference photos and tapes of the film pre-cut, which were sent back upon the toys' completion.

Later Work
As he began to leave the company, Wilson also worked on inventing the now-patented TRAK2BRIK system, which consists of clips that attach to most wooden railway track brands and allows for construction bricks to be built underneath them.

More recently, Wilson has been selling models from Wooden Railway on eBay due to "age and health issues". These include one-of-a-kind hand-made prototypes manufactured in his Creative International workshop in Arcade and Buffalo, New York. The first few of various production models ever made have also been put up for sale. He has also sold a variety of stamps and jewellery.

Trivia

 * Roy Wilson's initials can be found on several early Wooden Railway items.
 * His favourite Wooden Railway items are the Sodor Railway Repair and the Flying Scotsman.
 * On the Sodor China Clay Cars, Roy Wilson put his date of birth, 3547, on the red car and his eldest son's date of birth, 5272, on the green car.
 * Wilson, along with a few of his friends, produced most of his prototypes in a building behind the Arcade Herald newspaper building in Arcade, New York, a small town about 40 miles away from Buffalo, New York.
 * He has a 12 X 12 X 8 Feet safe filled with Thomas Wooden Railway prototypes from 1992 to 1998, as well as some from 2006.