RUGGED RAILS by Rail King

Rugged Rails are bargain Railking. They usually feature a little less detail than regular Railking models.

Generally, the pecking order is:
1: Premier
2: Railking Imperial / Scale
3: Railking
4: Rugged Rails

I don't own and Rugged rails locos but have some rolling stock.  Similar size to Lionel traditional/O27.  Nice cars with metal sprung trucks and good bargain. 

Don

Thank you H1000 (and Don) for enlightening me.

So the "Rugged Rails" line is the "poverty pack" MTH model train, exactly like the Z-500 and Z-750 transformers I recently learnt about.......AGH!!!!!

Peter.......Buco Australia.

Pete - Initially MTH Raiking starter set locos and O27 Passenger Cars were marketed as Railking, and later, demoted to the Rugged Rails line. I have Rugged Rails locos, and as far as set locos go, I see no difference from entry level Railking. For the passenger cars, I have none, so cannot say if they were also cheapened by decontenting them. The gonds, boxcars, covered hoppers were all shrunk to compete with Ind. Rail, Lionel, and K-Line O27 offerings.

Thanks Mark....I'm looking at a steam loco on an auction site (not telling which auction to increase my chances), and I may get lucky!!

See you soon......

Peter.....Buco Australia.

Good luck!

I agree with Mark. Don't be afraid of the rugged rails line, it still has the quality you want to be found in Railking. I think it might have been a way for MTH to keep making some money on tooling that was otherwise going to be "put out to pasture".

I have a smaller layout.  That said, the MTH rugged rails rolling stock and locomotives are a good fit and run well.  

The Rugged Rails 13" passenger cars scale to 52 feet, so they are prototypical of commuter cars.