Welcome everyone to the Story that has haunted my imagination ever since I first discovered it when I was 9 years old. The Story Of Rusty's Ghost Engine from my 2nd favourite TV show, Thomas And Friends. "Duncan Gets Spooked" is my all time favourite episode from this show because it's unlike any other of the show's episodes. It's the show's darkest episode, the show's most mature episode, and it completely changes how we view this so called "innocent light hearted" show. Join me as we take a look at The Story Of Rusty's Ghost Engine!

Oh, Thomas And Friends. I've always loved this show ever since I was young and I still love it today at the age of 17. It's litteraly been glued to me my whole life, and it's basically a part of myself. It's always been so mature and appealing to me. If you've watched Thomas And Friends when you were younger, some of you may have heard of this particular episode, and some of you may not have. I actually never found this episode until I was 9 but I've been watching this episode ever since I first watched it in the Spring of 2015. The episode is "Duncan Gets Spooked" From Season 5, and is the 24th episode from the Season. This episode came out back in 1998 and to this day, after 25 years, this episode still has many people in the community, including me scratching their heads. But let's take a short look into the actual episode itself before we go deep into the creepy parts and before we do it, if you wanna watch the episode for yourself, go look it up on YouTube and then come back here because it's a really good episode. Let's get into it.

The episode starts off with Peter Sam having a drink of water at the water tower, and then a long line of Freight Cars break away and fall of a bridge and crash into the water. After that, Peter Sam gets in trouble and Duncan taunts him about it. Wanting to stand up for Peter Sam, Rusty tells Duncan a Story from the bridge and this is where the episode becomes LEGENDARY. 

Rusty tells Duncan a story that happened decades, or possible even a century ago, as we never know what date this Story happened. On one misty moonlit night, Engine was travelling back home from a long day of work. The Engine then starts crossing the same bridge where the Trucks fell off. THEN THE ENGINE SUDDENLY LOSES CONTROL, FALLS OFF THE BRIDGE AND DIES. And all this was shown on screen as well! It's all in one shot and we never see or know anything about the Engine, but this tragic death happened in a kids show. In fact, this is also the only Episode in Thomas And Friends that has an actual death in it. Rusty ends the Story saying that even though the mysterious Engine was never found again, many workmen swear to this day, they see an Engine puffing across the bridge when the Moon is full, but it disappears half way across, haunting the bridge where it died that night.

As the arrogant bully he is, Duncan is a bit scared, but doesn't admit it and thinks what Rusty is telling him is it's nothing but a bunch of BS. Peter Sam's Driver and Fireman then gets an idea to play a trick on Duncan that involves crossing the bridge. He then tells this to Duncan's Driver and Fireman, who also think it's a great idea. Later that night, Duncan had to bring a long line of Sleight Trucks back from the incline to the yard, and he had to cross the bridge where the Engine fell off of. As Duncan stops on the bridge, a bunch of Fireflies form the shape of an Engine, and even though his Driver and Fireman already know it's a group of Fireflies, Duncan thinks what he's seeing is the Engine. His Driver and Fireman then throw a rock from his cab into the ravine below, which makes Duncan think that it was the Ghost of the Engine trying to cross the bridge at the same time he was. Duncan is then scared out of his mind and hurries back to the shed and goes to sleep, while his Driver and Fireman taunt him about their prank. And that's where the Episode ends.

Ever since this episode came out in 25 years ago, everyone from the Thomas And Friends Fandom have wondered endlessly about this Story and tried coming up with their own backstories. Some fans believe it was a character who was already from the show, or it was a completely unknown character that never appeared in the show.

But now it's MY turn to explain who I think the mysterious Engine was and what I think his backstory was. I'm gonna run through the most popular characters people theorize was the Engine who fell off the bridge on that horrific night. Our first Engine of interest is Skarloey.

Some people believe that Skarloey is Rusty's Ghost Engine. And their claims do have some weight to them. The Engine's Model is the exact same Model as Skarloey or in real life terms, Talyllyn. And if you wanna be real, Britt Allcroft and David Mitton actually used Skarloey for the Ghost Engine. In fact, they put a motor on Skarloey, which made him go a certain distance before it fell off the model bridge, which I think is really clever of them. 

So if you look at this in an Objective way, Skarloey is Rusty's Ghost Engine since they used him for the episode. 😂

It's really hard to tell the colours of the Engine since the Camera is too far away, and it's only seen during the night time. But if we look a bit more closely at the Engine, we can see the Engine is Red, which of course makes sense because , Skarloey's Model was used for the Ghost Engine. Another important thing about the Engine is that it has Percy's Whistle Sound. As we see his Ghost disappear on the bridge, we can hear a whistle that sounds exactly like Percy's Whistle. But other than that we know absolutely nothing about this mysterious Ghost Engine. Obviously, we don't know his real name, but like I said earlier, many people have come up with their own theories suggesting it could be a character who is already from the show. The most common theories are Ivo Hugh, or Smudger, Bertram, and Proteus, who most people believe was the Ghost Engine. These are really good guesses since the Ghost Engine could be anyone. But there's one important detail that none of these Engines of interest have.

None of these Engines' Models match the Ghost Engine. The only known Engine who shares the same Model as the Engine is Skarloey, and that's why some people say Skarloey was Rusty's Ghost Engine. This seems like a pretty good guess and it would make an AWESOME Skarloey backstory! But even if it was Skarloey who fell off the bridge, wouldn't he have told everyone by now? He always loves telling stories. Or maybe he wants to keep this traumatising story a secret. A lot of people who go through trauma in real life are nervous to talk about it because of how stressful it is. But it could also be an Engine who never even appeared in the show. But that's another reason why Duncan Gets Spooked is my favourite Thomas episode. No theories are right and wrong. You can do whatever you want with this Story because nothing would be true or false.

Thank you for reading the first part of this Story. Next Chapter, we will discuss another intriguing question about this Story. We're gonna see if this Story was actually based on a REAL accident? As if this Story couldn't get dark enough, it takes another DARK turn...

To be continued...