Traction tires or bullfrog snot?

[Green_Elite_Cab]

I stay clear of tires and snot. I found that stuff tends to give me more track to clean, I hate cleaning track. I must be old fashioned, because I stick with the idea of just cramming as much weight over the drivers as possible. That's what works in the real world of railroading, and it works for me in the HO world also ( I can't speak for smaller scales) . If that doesn't solve the problem,,, some work to the rolling stock may be in order to get them to roll more freely. If slipping trains are still a problem,, call in a helper. That's another real-world fix that works in the miniature world of model railroading. Think of how often do you see trains running with just one unit at the point. In GEC's example this isn't always a good fix, most commuter lines only use 1 loco per train. Remember trains loose traction and slip and stall in the real world all the time, especially steam power starting a heavy train, so you can always take the easy way out and just say it's prototypical .

I agree with E-paw.

Using my ALP44 example, that locomotive could only push and pull a 5 car train (and struggled doing it) if it ran unmodified with unmodified coaches.

The coaches I was using, Comet II types by walthers, rolled so poorly that they would stand still on a 4% grade, and would grind to hault even if you pushed them. While adding bullfrog snot (and an ounce of weight) to my ALP44 did improve performance dramatically, It was only after I made these cars roll smoothly that I got the train to run and prototypical lengths and on steep grades without fail (about 8-9 cars).

Your 0-4-2 certainly sounds like a commuter engine, but I'm surprised it struggles with two coaches. Perhaps your coaches need a tune-up as well.