Going Rusty

"Bother this wet weather, Rusty!"

- Thomas

Going Rusty is a magazine story.

Plot
One day, Thomas stops at one of his branch line stations and meets Rusty. Thomas complains about the rain, but Rusty says that autumn is his favourite time of the year as the leaves turn the same colour as him. Rusty's driver says that rain makes the leaves turn a rusty colour. Thomas thinks the driver is joking and he knows that the rain does not make the leaves rusty.

A week later, on a cold wet morning, Thomas pulls into the station ready to take the children to school. Rusty is in the siding and tells Thomas that all of the leaves are rusty now. Thomas looks at the leaves and says that it would make his day to see some blue leaves. The children who are boarding Annie and Clarabel overhear him and laugh.

That afternoon, the children run keenly up to Thomas as he pulls into their stop. One of the boys says that they wanted to make Thomas' day and so they did some leaf printing in their painting class and made all the leaves blue. They give the large picture to the driver who says it will make good wallpaper for the engine shed. Thomas cannot wait to show it to Rusty.

Characters

 * Thomas
 * Rusty
 * Annie and Clarabel

Trivia

 * The 2013 version adds an exclamation mark to the title.

Goofs

 * Rusty is depicted as a standard gauge engine and working at a station on Thomas' branch line.