Rusty and the Boulder

"Rather a smash than a squash!"

- Rheneas' driver

"We should have left this part of the island...alone."

- Sir Topham Hatt after seeing the destruction caused by Boulder

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

Plot
On the Island of Sodor, high up in the mountains, there was a mysterious boulder, and it stood alone for a long time. But one day, a new quarry is being built near the mines on the land below and Rusty is afraid the giant boulder will fall onto the line. He confesses his fears to Thomas and Percy. Then Edward arrives with a new machine called Thumper to help with the mining process. Soon, Thumper was working hard. The men are pleased, but no one bothers to check the boulder. But one rainy day, when it rained, the workmen went away. Rusty is gazing up and shivered as above stood Boulder. Suddenly, a large slab of rock lands on the rails. Rusty is shocked and worried by this, but his driver was concerned. The driver reassures him.

The next day, the sun is shining and Thumper is working harder than ever. He always works hard on the rocks below Boulder. Suddenly, Rusty noticed something. He realized that Boulder is moving, but his driver does not believe him until Boulder falls down in front of them and begins to chase Rusty. Boulder rolls along the line of the rails as Rusty quickly drives himself backwards to get away from Boulder. Rusty and his driver stop at a junction and wait for Boulder to pass by, but Boulder is nowhere to be seen. Then, they soon realised that Boulder is behind them. Just ahead, they saw a small junction, so Rusty raced towards it. Rusty takes the line that goes uphill while Boulder thunders past by them.

Meanwhile, Skarloey was making his way up to the quarry. Then, he sees the boulder heading for him. He becomes shocked, shouts for help, and quickly reverses, but the boulder is catching up fast. Skarloey slips into a siding while the Boulder passes by. Boulder smashs up the water tower that was in between the tracks. Skarloey realises they have to warn the yards, but Rusty doesn't know how. Boulder rounded a bend and there ahead was Rheneas. He shouts that the boulder was running loose, as his driver quickly drives him back as fast as he could. Both Rheneas and the Boulder went through the viaduct, as Rheneas runs into some buffers with Boulder just missing him, but his driver sighed that it's rather a smash than a squash. At the yards, Percy is collecting trucks. Then, he heard Boulder. Percy was shocked and realised that Boulder was heading straight for him. Percy made his whistle squeak, closed his eyes, his crew jumped, and Boulder crashes into the sheds, causing a large explosion with flames.

When The Fat Controller inspected the damage, he decides to close the mine. Then he looks at Boulder with the shed, destroyed. He realises that they should have left this part of the island alone. They move Boulder to a hill close by the yards so it would never harm anyone on the island anymore. Rusty is sure that on a clear night, it is gazing up at the mountain, and it is sighs are being carried on the wind, to where it once used to stand proud and silent. Whether Rusty is right or not is unknown.

Characters

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

Locations

 * Boulder Quarry
 * Rheneas Viaduct
 * Echo Pass Ravine

Trivia

 * Boulder's face is based upon Gordon's.
 * The same model for Boulder is used for both the large-scale and normal-scale sets.
 * This episode marks the first and only appearance of Thumper to date.
 * In this episode, the quarry was brand new and closed in a short amount of time, meaning the events of Bye George! and Duncan Gets Spooked must have occurred during the events of this episode as they also took place at the Boulder Quarry yards at the base of the mountain. Furthermore, George is seen at Thumper's dig site, meaning that he served his week-long punishment and was brought back to the quarry to help.
 * The scene where Boulder chases after Rusty, coupled with how round the boulder was, may have been based off of the Indiana Jones film "Raiders of the Lost Ark". This reference was later used in the Thomas Around the World short, Thomas Goes for Gold.
 * 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.
 * Going by Production Order, this is the Twenty-sixth episode of the Fifth Season and the season finale.

Goofs

 * Due to his model being changed, Rusty's face gets bigger and then smaller again throughout the episode.
 * Boulder is still covered in moss while it chases Rusty. However, once it appears behind him, all the moss has vanished.
 * Skarloey looks scared before he realises Boulder is coming.
 * In the close-ups of Rheneas, the hook attached to the camera he is pulling along is visible.
 * When Boulder approaches Skarloey at the water column, Skarloey does not have a driver.
 * The close-up of Rheneas' driver is actually of the circular window on the left side of Rusty's cab.
 * When Boulder races past Rheneas, the same scene from earlier in the episode when Boulder races past Rusty is used.
 * When the water tower pieces crash onto Skarloey, his driver gets hit by the timber.
 * At one point in the US narration, the term "truck" is used before Boulder approaches Percy.

Merchandise

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