So what is an MTH "Rugged Rails" passenger car. Or what does the term Rugged Rails mean ?
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I have the PRR Rugged Rail "heavyweight" cars, and love them. They are well detailed (interior, railings, rubber walk-throughs) for the price. They are much shorter than scale, but full H and W, so they don't look too low behind a full size engine. I filled mine with MTH figures. I had to get most of them on eBay.
I'm pretty sure MTH continued making these, for a while, under the RailKing name.
I think the RL concept was great. Why MTH got rid of them is beyond me.
They really never "stopped" making them. Most of the steam starter set boxes come with "Rugged Rails" branding on the boxes.
The 2-8-0s are cataloged as Rugged Rails products (or at least were until very, very recently). Same for the Madison cars and some freight cars.
The Rugged Rails 13" long passenger cars (scale 52 feet), both heavyweight and streamlined, give the best overall impression of real trains when run in consists of 7 or cars. These cars were originally Rail King items.
The 13" long cars of Rail King / Rugged Rails have scale width and height and just enough detail to make them look good.
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