Rusty and the Boulder

"Yikes!"

- Skarloey

Rusty and the Boulder is the twenty-fifth episode of the fifth season.

Plot
A new quarry is being built near the mines and Rusty is afraid a giant boulder will fall onto the line. He confesses his fears to Thomas and Percy, but they forget about them when a new machine named Thumper arrives to help the building process. Later, Rusty's fears are amplified when a huge slab of rock nearly hits him one rainy day. However, no one takes much notice and the next day the nail is put on the coffin: Thumper knocks the boulder loose and it chases Rusty down the line. Rusty escapes by going onto an uphill siding. Skarloey meets the boulder near the slate mines and runs into another siding. Rheneas soon meets the boulder and narrowly avoids disaster by running into a coalbunker. Finally Percy meets the boulder at the mines, where it crashes into the shed, completely destroying it and setting it on fire. The Fat Controller closes the mine down, and the boulder is placed on a nearby hill.

Characters

 * Thomas
 * Edward
 * Percy
 * Skarloey
 * Rheneas
 * Rusty
 * Sir Topham Hatt
 * Boulder
 * Thumper (does not speak)
 * Terence (cameo)
 * George (cameo)
 * Butch (cameo)

Locations

 * Boulder Quarry
 * The Skarloey Railway Viaduct

Trivia

 * Many of the scenes of Boulder chasing the engines look similar to the famous "boulder" scene from the Indiana Jones movie "Raiders of the Lost Ark".
 * Boulder's face is based upon Gordon's.
 * The same model for Boulder is used for both the large-scale and normal-scale sets.
 * Some of the music throughout the runaway is missing in the UK version.
 * In the US version, the line "...but they veered into a siding" is omitted.
 * In the US version, a crashing sound effect is heard when Rheneas hits the siding, this is absent in the UK version.
 * In the UK narration, Rusty says "That may be, Percy" while in the US narration, he says, "Well, Percy".
 * In the UK narration Skarloey says "Yikes!" but in the US version he yells "Help!"
 * In the UK narration, Rheneas says "Yikes!" but in the US version he says "Hurry!"

Goofs

 * Rusty's small-scale model is used at the beginning and end of the episode, but his large-scale model is used throughout the rest. Because of this, Rusty's face seems to change size.
 * When Boulder falls off the cliff, it hits an outcrop but still falls vertically onto the track.
 * Boulder is still covered in moss while it chases Rusty. However, once it appears behind him, all the moss has vanished.
 * Skarloey looked scared before he realized Boulder was coming.
 * In the close-ups of Rheneas, the hook attached to the camera he is pulling along is visible.
 * The viaduct should have collapsed under Boulder's weight.
 * Engines cannot simply "swerve" into sidings. The points wouldn't have just been switched at the last second for the relevant characters. To add to that, Boulder was never seen running past any signalboxes or workmen to explain all the points being switched.
 * As Boulder approaches the sheds, the ground bounces.
 * Boulder sets the shed alight when it collides with it, but no reason is given. It is unlikely that Boulder created sparks when it impacted the shed.
 * Building so close to a boulder would have not been authorized in real life.
 * No natural boulder would be that round or have been able to form independently from the rest of the rock formation.
 * The dialogue and footage leads us to believe that Thumper is working near Boulder. However, the site where Thumper and the workmen are only has one narrow gauge line leading toward buffers. The area where Rusty observes Boulder has two lines, no siding, and Thumper and any other machines aren't seen. So where exactly was Thumper working?
 * In the US version, the term "trucks" is accidentally used at one point.
 * When Boulder approaches Skarloey at the water column, Skarloey does not have a driver, but when the column is smashed, his driver is seen leaning out of the cab.
 * The close-up of Rheneas' driver is actually inside Rusty's cab.
 * When Boulder races pass Rheneas, the same scene from earlier in the episode when Boulder races pass Rusty is used.
 * No explanation is given as to how Boulder got behind Rusty.
 * Brakevans should have been added to Skarloey and Edward's trains.

Merchandise

 * Wooden Railway
 * Take-Along
 * TOMY/TrackMaster
 * Wind-up Trains (Japan only)