Rusty and the Boulder

"Rather a smash than a squash!"

- Rheneas' driver

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. Then Edward arrives with with a new machine called Thumper to help with the mining process. One rainy day, Rusty is gazing up at the boulder when a huge piece of rock falls onto the line. Rusty is worried by this, but his driver reassures him. The next day the sun is shining and Thumper is working on the rocks below the boulder. Rusty realizes that boulder is moving, but his driver does not believe him until boulder falls down in front of them and begins to chase Rusty.

Rusty quickly reverses to get away from boulder. Rusty and his driver stop at a junction and wait for boulder to pass by. They soon realise that boulder is behind them and race towards another junction. Rusty takes the the line that goes uphill whlie boulder passes by them. Meanwhile, Skarloey is making his way up to the quarry when he sees boulder heading for him. He quickly reverses, but boulder is catching up. Skarloey slips into a siding while the boulder passes by. boulder rounds a bend starts heading for Rheneas, who reverses and smashes into some buffers with boulder just missing him. At the yards, Percy is collecting trucks when he hears boulder. Percy closes his eyes and boulder crashes into the sheds. The Fat Controller decides to close down the mine and move boulder onto a hill.

Characters

 * Thomas
 * Edward
 * Percy
 * Skarloey
 * Rheneas
 * Rusty
 * Sir Topham Hatt
 * 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's as 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!"
 * In the UK narration, Rheneas' driver says "Rather a smash than a squash!", but in the US version he says "Better a smash than a squash!"
 * In Japan, this episode is called "Boulder Rock".

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 would not 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 are not 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.
 * When the water tower pieces crash onto Skarloey, his driver gets hit by the timber.
 * When the boulder was chasing Rusty, it should should have knocked the tree down instead of just nudging it.

Merchandise

 * Wooden Railway - Boulder Mountain Set
 * Take-Along (discontinued)
 * TOMY/TrackMaster - Runaway Boulder
 * Wind-up Trains (Japan only) - Boulder