Rusty

    Rusty the Little Diesel 
 * Number: 5

Rusty, named after his makers, Ruston and Hornsby, is a diesel that works on the Skarloey Railway.

Bio
Rusty was built at Ruston and Hornsby in 1954 and arrived on Sodor in 1958. Rusty was rebuilt in 1980.

Rusty's debut in the Railway Series was in "The Little Old Engine" when he came to help Sir Handel and Peter Sam and do maintainence work while Skarloey was away. He helped Peter Sam after his accident with the slate trucks, and helped Skarloey off his truck when he returned. Duncan, who came while Peter Sam was recuperating, initially took a dislike to him, calling him smelly, but stopped after Rusty helped him after he derailed. Rusty stayed on afterwards.

In the television series, Rusty was first seen by Harold when he was coming to help repair the lines. Duncan seems to dislike him - as he does with all other diesels - even though Rusty has helped him out many times.

In the fifth season, some of the narrow gauge engines received larger models, and Rusty obtained a slightly larger face than the one in his previous model. This has remained throughout the rest of the series apart from the usage of his small model in "Calling All Engines". However, his face has been re-sized back to his Season 4-5 model face in the twelfth season.

Persona
In the Railway Series Rusty is helpful and kind, but initially refused to help Duncan after he derailed.

In "Speedkiller", he was bored, attributing it to the fact that the Weedkilling train goes too slow.

In the Classic Series Rusty's personality matches that of the Railway Series.

In the New Series, he has proved to be impatient, careless, and prone to leaving things to the last minute, which is no where near his original persona.

Rusty is usually helpful and kind, and has proved to be impatient, careless and prone to leaving things to last minute.

Basis
Rusty is based on the Talyllyn Railway's "Midlander".

Livery
In the Railway Series, Rusty is painted charcoal-black with gold lining. In the television series, he is painted orange with yellow lining and white lettering. Incidentally, this is the TaF's explanation for his naming.

Rusty is currently painted orange with yellow lining and white lettering. Previously, he was painted charcoal-black with gold lining and lettering.

Trivia

 * Rusty is the only diesel engine with one entrance to his cab, which is on his right side of his cab. On the left side of Rusty's cab, there is a round window. Most narrow gauge diesel and petrol locomotives have cabs with one entrance.
 * In Railway Series, Rusty has oval buffers. In television series, he has round buffers.
 * Before arriving on Sodor, he had no buffers. Before 1995 and after arriving on Sodor, he had oval buffers. Since 1995, he has round buffers.
 * Rusty is the second narrow gauge engine to be mentioned in a standard gauge engine episode. (first being Sir Handel)

Rusty, boy or girl?
A major continuity error occurred in the original American broadcasts of the ninth season, where Rusty was referred to as a female in narrations. While Rusty was clearly slated 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.

Merchandising

 * ERTL model (discontinued)
 * LC Wooden model (retired)
 * Take-Along model (not available seperately)
 * TOMY/Trackmaster model
 * 'My First' model
 * My Thomas Story Library 'Rusty'