Rusty The Diesel - Rusty in The TV Series

Rusty in The TV Series

Rusty was introduced in the 4th season of Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends, and ran with an orange coat, rather than his black one in the books.

Like all of the engines, he received a larger-scaled model in Season 5 for easier filming. This new model has a much larger face than the original. However, his old model made a return in Calling All Engines. In 12th season his large scale model face has shrunk to its original size like Seasons 4-5. As the series progressed, Rusty is not as responsible as he was in his earlier episodes. In recent seasons, he has rushed through work, and he even strayed from it until he ran out of diesel oil in Tuneful Toots. To date, Rusty is the only diesel engine that rescues a steam engine (Stepney) in the episode "Rusty to the Rescue" rather than scrap it, a major contrast to 'Arry and Bert, who constantly seek the chance to scrap a steamie.

A major continuity error occurred in the original American broadcasts of the 2005 season, where Rusty was referred to as a female in the narrations. While Rusty was clearly stated 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.

In Calling All Engines, Rusty is seen working with Lady in the mountains during a dream sequence, using his fourth season small scale model.

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.