Rusty the Diesel

Rusty is a diesel who does maintainence work on the Skarloey Railway. He is one of the main protagonists of the narrow gauge engines.

Railway Series history
In The Railway Series, Rusty is painted black. He is No. 5 on the Skarloey Railway, and often has arguments with another engine called Duncan.

Rusty in the TV Series
Rusty was introduced in the 4th season of Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends, and ran with an orange coat, rather than his black one in the books.

Like all of the engines, he received a larger-scaled model in Season 5 for easier filming. This new model (pictured) has a much larger face than the original. As the series progressed, Rusty isn't as responsible as he was in his earlier episodes. In recent seasons, he has rushed through work, and he even strayed from it until he ran out of diesel oil in Tuneful Toots. To date, Rusty is the only diesel engine that rescues a steam engine (Stepney) in the episode "Rusty to the Rescue" rather than scrap it, a major contrast to 'Arry and Bert, who constantly seek the chance to scrap a steamie.

A major continuity error occurred in the original American broadcasts of the 2005 season, where Rusty was referred to as a female in the narrations. While Rusty was clearly stated as being male in the original books, not once in the TV series had he been referred to in gender-specific terms up until then. Nonetheless, the two episodes that contained this error (Tuneful Toots and Duncan and the Old Mine) were edited for their DVD releases, now identifying Rusty as a male character.

In the Japanese version, he is voiced by Hideo Ishikawa.

Season 4

 * Trucks!
 * Rock 'n Roll!
 * Home At Last
 * Special Funnel (does not speak)
 * Steamroller
 * Rusty to the Rescue
 * Thomas and Stepney

Season 5

 * Stepney Gets Lost (does not speak)
 * Duncan Gets Spooked
 * Snow
 * Rusty and the Boulder

Season 6

 * Dunkin Duncan
 * Rusty Saves the Day
 * Faulty Whistles

Season 7

 * The Refreshment Lady's Tea Shop
 * Rheneas and the Roller Coaster
 * The Runaway Elephant
 * Trusty Rusty
 * The Grand Opening

Season 9

 * Tuneful Toots
 * The Magic Lamp
 * Duncan and the Old Mine
 * Skarloey the Brave

Season 10

 * Duncan Drops a Clanger
 * Thomas's Tricky Tree
 * Which Way Now?
 * Wharf and Peace
 * Missing Trucks!

Season 11

 * Thomas and the Big Bang
 * Duncan Does It All
 * Sir Handel In Charge

Season 12

 * The Party Surprise
 * The Man in the Hills
 * Push Me, Pull You! (does not speak)

Season 16

 * Christmas Tree Express

Specials

 * Calling All Engines! (does not speak)
 * Blue Mountain Mystery

Season 4

 * Bowled Out

Season 7

 * Harold and the Flying Horse
 * The Old Bridge

Season 9

 * Rheneas and the Dinosaur

Season 10

 * Follow That Flour!

Season 11

 * Cool Truckings
 * Wash Behind Your Buffers!

Season 12

 * Mountain Marvel

Season 16

 * Don't Bother Victor!

Specials

 * The Great Discovery

Merchandise
Rusty has been released in a number of the model ranges for the series, including:


 * Ertl Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends
 * Thomas & Friends Wooden Railway (available with construction cars)
 * Take-Along Thomas & Friends (available with rescue cars)
 * Tomica/Track Master Motorised and a Wind-up model (released in 2006)
 * My First Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends
 * Mega Bloks
 * Take-n-Play

Prototype
Rusty is based on the 0-4-0 "Midlander", a diesel engine built in 1941 that works on the Talyllyn Railway in Wales.

Theme

 * Rusty's theme is the Skarloey Railway theme, which he shares with Skarloey, Rheneas, Sir Handel, Peter Sam, Duncan, Duke, Fearless Freddie, and Mighty Mac.

Counterparts

 * Baddeck (Theodore Tugboat)
 * Cappy (Salty's Lighthouse)
 * E-102 Gamma (Sonic the Hedgehog)
 * Conker the Squirrel (Conker's Bad Fur Day, both are orange)
 * Kirby/Softy (Wacky Races/The Perils of Penelope Pitstop)
 * Bookworm (Tiny Toon Adventures)
 * Little Cat C (Dr. Seuss/The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss)
 * Reverend Timothy Lovejoy (The Simpsons)
 * Nick Myers (Zachary Swain)
 * Maurice (Madagascar)
 * Cyndaquil (Pokemon)
 * Sleepy (Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs)
 * Widdle (Star Wars)