Rusty/Behind the Scenes

The Railway Series
Rusty is a fictional narrow gauge diesel locomotive working on the Skarloey Railway created by the Rev. W. Awdry. He first appeared in the Railway Series book, The Little Old Engine, which was published in 1959.

Rusty is based on the Talyllyn Railway No.5 locomotive, Midlander. Several events that occurred with Midlander were mirrored with his fictional counterpart. The locomotive has also been used by the Talyllyn Railway to represent Rusty in real life.

Television Series
In 1995, Rusty was introduced in Season 4 of Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends. The season placed a great focus on the Narrow Gauge characters, with a number of stories from the original books televised. In the Railway Series, Rusty was painted black. Whereas, Rusty is painted orange (presumably to match his name).

After being absent with the other Narrow Gauge engines for Season 8, Rusty returned to the series in the following season. In the classic era of Thomas and Friends, Rusty is portrayed as a friendly diesel and dedicated worker. However, as the series progressed, Rusty's character gradually becamed altered under the influence of HiT Entertainment. In the HiT era, Rusty had an occasional habit of being impatient, careless, and prone to procrastination.

When the show transitioned into full CGI in 2009, the narrow gauge engines were absent for 3 years. Rusty later returned in the 2012 special, Blue Mountain Mystery, along with Skarloey, Rheneas, Sir Handel, and Peter Sam. In the CGI series, he is regained his original personality and seen frequently working at the Blue Mountain Quarry. Since Season 19, the Skarloey Railway has been underutilised, this may be due to the fact that Mattel, the current owner's of the Thomas franchise, have deemed them too obscure.

According to a New York Times article from 1995, Britt Allcroft intended to make Rusty gender neutral. Because of this, the Season 4 episodes removed or changed any instance of Rusty being referred to in gender-specific pronouns, as the original Railway Series stories refer to him as male. Throughout Season 4 to Season 7, Rusty was referred as "the Little Diesel" or by name. It was not until Season 9 that Rusty was referred to in gender-specific pronouns in the episodes, Tuneful Toots and Duncan and the Old Mine. The UK dub now referred to Rusty as male, whereas the original US dubs referred to Rusty as female. The US dub was later edited for their DVD releases, now identifying Rusty as male.

From Spring 2012 onwards, Rusty is now currently voiced by Matt Wilkinson (UK/US) in the CGI version of the series in both sides of the atlantic, respectively.

Awdry's model
The Reverend Wilbert Awdry built an OO9 scale model of Stuart for his layout of the Mid Sodor Railway. Stuart's model was donated by Awdry and put on display at the Reverend Teddy Boston's Cadeby Light Railway in Cadeby, Leicestershire, before the railway finally closed in 2005.

Awdry also built an OO9 scale model of Peter Sam. The model is now on display at the Narrow Gauge Museum in Tywyn, Wales, UK located near the Talyllyn Railway along with the other Skarloey Railway engines and rolling stock.

O gauge model (Small scale)
Peter Sam's small model was custom built from brass by model maker, Peter Eves to run on O gauge track to the Gauge 1 Scale Standard during production of Season 4. It was painted using glossy car body paint and lined with letraline red pin-striping tape. The number and nameplates were custom printed foil stickers. For the episodes taking place on the Mid Sodor Railway, Peter Sam's nameplate was covered with black tape and overlapped with his Stuart nameplate.

Peter Sam's wheels were sourced from Slater's 10 spoke Wantage Tramway wheels. These wheels were used on an O gauge locomotive chassis. All the narrow gauge steam engine side rods were sourced from old OO scale Triang models and modified slightly to fit. These rods did not fit well at all and the engines ran notoriously bad behind the scenes. Throughout the fourth and fifth seasons, the model had bent side rods..

10 different facial expressions worn by Peter Sam on screen. The faces were first sculpted in clay, and from that resin casts were made of a silicone mold.

The model had a motor to power it mounted inside the chassis as well as an eye mechanism. There was no room to fit a smoke mechanism or the battery and receiver needed for the R/C eyes. Wires connecting to the battery, servo and receiver were usually hidden off camera or carried in rolling stock behind the engine. The eye mechanism used servos mounted in the cab, the servos were hidden by blacking out the cab doors and windows. Metal rods went from the servos in the cab to a bracket in the smoke box behind the faceplate, one for up and down movement and one for left and right movement. This limited the range of movement of the eyes as well as being cumbersome and jamming often.

Nearly all drivers and firemen for the small scale locomotives were cut down the middle and black tacked to the engines' cab because the electric motors would not allow them to stand half in the cabs.

Season 4 had episodes revolving around Peter Sam's funnel, in which the character receives a new funnel after an accident. Peter Sam's old funnel was removable, and made loose from the smokebox in the episodes, Trucks, Home at Last and Special Funnel to depict that his funnel had been damaged. The funnel was later removed for a scene and then replaced with a "drainpipe funnel" and rope in Special Funnel. Peter Sam is then seen with a temporary funnel which is smaller than his original one. At the end of Special Funnel, Peter Sam sports a new funnel. However, the old funnel was actually kept in place, as the new funnel was simply a brass box meant to slip over the old funnel, hence the square shape. This is why it is not thin and long like an accurate Giesl Ejector design. He was later seen with his old funnel in a brief seen of the fifth season episode, Duncan Gets Spooked.

O gauge model (Large scale)
For ease of filming and reliability, Season 5 introduce larger-scale versions of the narrow gauge engines, and from Season 6-12, Peter Sam' large model was used exclusively. The larger-scale models were built to a larger scale than the gauge 1 engines and ran on O gauge track. They were close to 16mm scale, but slightly larger.

7 different facial expressions worn by Peter Sam on screen. The faces were first sculpted in clay, and from that resin casts were made of a silicone mold. The model was made from brass. The wheels and chassis were custom machined (CNC). The model was track powered, so pickup contacts were attached to the metal wheels, which ran into the motor to power it. The electricity ran from the track to the wheels/pickup contacts and went into the motor to power him. The model was also fitted with a smoke unit.

The eye mechanism had two servos, one for up and down movement and one for left and right movement. The up/down servo was attached to the body. The left/right servo had a rod attached to the arm, which connected to a bracket. The eye balls were coupled to the bracket, and locked in by the face-plate, so whenever the servos were powered, the eye balls would move however the crew member desired.

In the episodes, Tuneful Toots, The Magic Lamp and The Man in the Hills, Peter Sam was seen with a lamp, powered by a hidden battery pack. In the ninth season episode, The Magic Lamp, Proteus reused Peter Sam's chassis, and green edges can be seen underneath Proteus' bufferbeam and cylinders.

Peter Sam's model is now currently on display at the Hara Model Railway Museum in Japan. It was previously on display at Nitrogen Studios.

Close-up model
A larger scale model of Peter Sam was built in Season 4. It was required for scenes where he had to interact with the close-up scale figures. It was also used for close-up whistle and funnel shots, smoke would emit both from the whistle and funnel when required.

The close-up model of Duke's happy face was also used on the close up Peter Sam in this shot from Special Funnel.

It appeared in the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, ninth, eleventh and twelfth seasons.

CGI model
In 2009, the series introduced Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) as a replacement for the show's long-standing live-action models. Peter Sam was recreated from scratch in CGI by Nitrogen Studios in 2012 for production of the special Blue Mountain Mystery. His model was "hand-sculpted" in Maya, a 3D animation and modelling software.

Photographs of Peter Sam's large scale model were used for referencing. According to Greg Tiernan, every detail of the original television series models for each character is carefully reproduced in the CGI model. The models are subjected to many rounds of review before they are submitted to HiT Entertainment for final input and approval.

In addition, Nitrogen Studios went to the Talyllyn Railway and took measurements of Peter Sam's basis, Edward Thomas, so that his CGI model would resemble Edward Thomas as closely as possible.

Peter Sam has had modifications throughout the CGI era. These include:
 * Blue Mountain Mystery:
 * His square funnel was altered to an accurate Giesl Ejector.
 * His footplate and sandboxes were painted black.
 * He gained a new whistle sound.
 * The lower round window on the back of his cab was replaced with two small doors, just like his basis.
 * A handrail was added across the top of his smokebox.
 * His regular one valve whistle was updated to a two valve whistle just like his real counterpart. It also budged up and down until the seventeenth season.
 * His cutout windows gained brass frames and contained glass.
 * His tail lamp changed to a removable Talyllyn-styled lamp.
 * Sanding gear was added.
 * His green livery became more vibrant than it was in the ninth season.
 * Extra lining near the top of his cab.
 * Season 17:
 * Permanent lamp and lamp irons.
 * His filler cap and dome changed from green to black.

Voice Actors

 * Steven Kynman (UK/US; Blue Mountain Mystery onwards)
 * Shinobu Satouchi (Japan; fourth - seventh seasons)
 * Satoshi Katougi (Japan; ninth - eleventh seasons)
 * Hiroo Sasaki (Japan; Blue Mountain Mystery onwards)
 * Marios Gavrilis (Germany; Blue Mountain Mystery - sixteenth season)
 * Kai-Henrik Möller (Germany; seventeenth season onwards)
 * Gaute Boris Skjegstad (Norway; Blue Mountain Mystery only)
 * Sigbjørn Solheim (Norway; sixteenth - seventeenth season)
 * Arturo Cataño (Latin America; Blue Mountain Mystery onwards)
 * Marek Bocianiak (Poland; Blue Mountain Mystery - eighteenth season)
 * Maksymilian Michasiów (Poland; twentieth season onwards)
 * Paul Disbergen (The Netherlands)
 * Vladimir Antonik (Russia; sixteenth season only)
 * Prokhor Chekhovskoy (Russia; seventeenth season - Duncan and the Grumpy Passenger)
 * Anton Savenkov (Russia; Samson at Your Service onwards)
 * Antti L. J. Pääkkönen (Finland)
 * Tiến Đạt (Vietnam)
 * Haris Grigoropoulos (Greece)