Rusty (T&F)/Behind the Scenes

Background Information
In 1995, Rusty was introduced in the fourth series of Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends. The series placed a great focus on the Narrow Gauge characters, with a number of stories from the original books televised. In The Railway Series, Rusty was painted black. However in the television series, Rusty is painted orange (presumably to match his name).

After being absent with the other Narrow Gauge engines for the eighth series, Rusty returned in the following series. In the classic era of Thomas & Friends, Rusty is portrayed as a friendly diesel and dedicated worker. However, as the series progressed, Rusty's character gradually became altered under the influence of HiT Entertainment. In the HiT era, Rusty had an occasional habit of being impatient, careless and prone to procrastination.

When the show transitioned into full CGI in 2009, the narrow gauge engines were absent for three years. Rusty later returned in the 2012 special, Blue Mountain Mystery, along with Skarloey, Rheneas, Sir Handel and Peter Sam. In the CGI series, he has been seen frequently working at the Blue Mountain Quarry.

According to a New York Times article from 1995, Britt Allcroft intended to make Rusty gender neutral. Because of this, the fourth series episodes removed or changed any instance of Rusty being referred to in gender-specific pronouns, as the original Railway Series stories refer to him as male. Throughout the fourth to seventh series, Rusty was referred as "the Little Diesel" or by name. It was not until the ninth series that Rusty was referred to in gender-specific pronouns in the episodes, Tuneful Toots and Duncan and the Old Mine. The UK dub now referred to Rusty as male, whereas the original US dubs referred to Rusty as female. The US dub was later edited for their DVD releases, now identifying Rusty as male.

Since his return in 2012, Rusty has been voiced by Matt Wilkinson in both the British English and American English dubs of the series. Matt Wilkinson gives Rusty a West Country accent.

O gauge model (Small scale)
Rusty's small model was custom built from brass by model maker, Peter Eves to run on O gauge track to the Gauge 1 Scale Standard during production of the fourth series. It was painted using glossy car body paint and lined with yellow Letraline pin-striping tape. The number and nameplates were custom printed stickers.

Rusty's wheels were sourced from unspoked SM32 "Quarry Hunslet" wheels made by Slater's Plastikard. These wheels were used on an O gauge locomotive chassis. The buffers were sourced from Slater's Plastikard as well, with most engines using the square based short sprung buffers.

Eight different facial expressions were made for Rusty, although only seven were used on-screen and one of which, his horrified face was left unused. The faces were first sculpted in clay and from that resin casts were made using a silicone mould.

Present Day
After production of the model series wrapped in 2008, most of the models and sets would be put into storage, with some being put on display at Drayton Manor Theme Park. All other models would be logged and referenced in 2009 by HiT Entertainment, from this HiT would decide on which models were to enter storage once again, which would be given to crew members and which to be disposed off. Due to the larger models being more frequently used at the time, Rusty's small scale model would be disposed off by the company in favor of the large scale model, which would stay under HiT and later Mattel's ownership.

As of April 2020, Rusty's small scale model, along with his nameboard (the nameboard being supplied by TomsProps) is now owned and preserved by Twitter and Instagram user ThomasTankMerch. In late 2021, Rusty's small scale model was put on display at the Edison train show alongside other props from ThomasTankMerch's collection, additionally in 2021 for the Halloween Clearwater Event Rusty's scared face and prototype face would be exhibited and worn on a fan-made replica. Another prototype face would be exhibited at the History of Thomas Event and Awdry Extravaganza.

O gauge model (Large scale)
For ease of filming and reliability, the fifth series introduced larger-scale versions of the narrow gauge engines and from the sixth to twelfth series, these models were used almost exclusively. The larger-scale models were built to a larger scale than the gauge 1 engines and ran on O gauge track. They were close to 16mm scale, but slightly larger.

Eleven different facial expressions were made for Rusty and used on-screen. The faces were first sculpted in clay and from that resin casts were made using a silicone mould. Most notability, he received a much larger face than his previous small scale model counterpart.

Rusty's model has had many modifications and changes from its small scale counterpart throughout the television series. These include:
 * Series 5:
 * His face became larger.
 * His grey buffers became silver.
 * Part of his radiation cap became black.
 * Series 6:
 * His paint was given a matte finish.
 * His silver buffers became black.
 * Series 9:
 * He received a two-toned horn which was heard in Tuneful Toots only and is played by a c note first, then a f note, but the rest of the same series, his horn sound changed, but this time, it was a different note and is played by a c note and it is the same as Brum's from the television show of the same name.
 * He gains a tail lamp.
 * Series 12:
 * His face went back to its fourth series size.

Present Day
Rusty's large-scale model is now currently on display at the Hara Model Railway Museum in Japan. It was previously on display at Nitrogen Studios in Canada. His happy face would also be displayed at the Awdry Extravaganza in 2021.

Close-up model
A larger-scale model of Rusty was built in the fourth series. It was required for scenes where he had to interact with the close-up scale figures.

The model was made in pieces so it was able to be dismantled and reassembled when needed. In addition, most of the close-up scale models were usually not built as complete models, on top of the fact the faces would most often never need to be seen in this scale.

Unlike both his O gauge models, Rusty's front and back cutout windows had glass. These were removed in the fifth series.

It appeared in the fourth, fifth and sixth series.

CGI model
In 2009, the series introduced Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) as a replacement for the show's long-standing live-action models. Rusty was recreated from scratch in CGI by Nitrogen Studios in 2010 for production of the 2012 special Blue Mountain Mystery. His model was "hand-sculpted" in Maya, a 3D animation and modelling software.

Photographs of Rusty's large scale model were used for referencing. According to Greg Tiernan, every detail of the original television series models for each character is carefully reproduced in the CGI model. The models are subjected to many rounds of review before they are submitted to HiT Entertainment for final input and approval.

In addition, Nitrogen Studios went to the Talyllyn Railway and took photographs of Rusty's basis, Midlander to use for referencing purposes. Unlike his basis, Rusty is nearly twice the size of Midlander in the television series and was never fitted with a different shaped radiator. So when Rusty returned in CGI, he was the same larger size and retained Midlander's original designed radiator for continuity reasons.

Rusty has had modifications throughout the CGI era. These include:
 * Blue Mountain Mystery:
 * His face went back to its fifth series size.
 * Air vents and starter outlets were added on his sides.
 * Rivet detailing was added on his cab.
 * He gained a more accurate chassis to his basis.
 * He gained a slightly altered version of his new two-toned horn sound effect which is similar to the one he used in Tuneful Toots only and is played by a C note first, then an F note.

The following pantone colours are used on Rusty's CGI model:

Fonts
•Clarendon Medium (number)

Voice Actors

 * Matt Wilkinson
 * Hideo Ishikawa
 * Tokuyoshi Kawashima
 * Arash Marandi
 * Achim Buch
 * Stan Limburg
 * Scott Maurstad
 * Christian Greger Strøm
 * Abraham Vega
 * Gabriel Juárez
 * Krzysztof Szczerbiński
 * Grzegorz Kwiecień
 * Carlos Moreno
 * Alexander Kotov
 * Denis Bespaliy
 * Taisto Oksanen
 * Haris Grigoropoulos
 * Ole Møller