Bullfrog Snot for the win ?

[mu26aeh]

Doing some work for someone, trying out Bullfrog Snot to add extra traction to a Bachmann 2-8-4 Kanawha.  It comes with a traction tire, but the Reading and Lehigh has a nasty grade to climb (+ 3% ) and even with a Y6b shoving on the rear, they could barely move 10-11 cars.  I first added it to 1 driver (with the traction tire) and it managed 15 cars by itself up a 5% grade before spinning out at the top.  I decided to try the 2nd geared driver with another application of BS and tried it out today.  Got up to 25 cars and it's still walking right up the 5% with no issues.  I have 1 spot where there is a booger causing a little jump, so may have to scrap off that driver and reapply.  But so far it seems to work well and the R&L should be able to assign that helper crew to a different train somewhere else.

[CRR Chase]

thats impressive!

can you apply this directly to the rails? and achieve the same effect?

[davefoxx]

thats impressive!

can you apply this directly to the rails? and achieve the same effect?

There goes the electrical continuity, if you apply it to the rails.

DFF

[mu26aeh]

Good thing with this loco, power is drawn thru the tender.  Otherwise applying to more drivers will effect continuity on other locos.

[CRR Chase]

There goes the electrical continuity, if you apply it to the rails.

DFF

i wasn't sure how the stuff worked.. so had to do some reading.. i see now that it isn't electrically conductive. i may be interested in this product in the future. the IM SD45-2 can be a little light.. so maybe their center axle could use this stuff?

[Dave V]

It's basically like a traction tire in a jar. It's not the easiest stuff to work with, but I've had some mixed success with it in the past.

There's a trade-off for sure, and Bullfrog Snot is really a Band-Aid on a problem, be it gradient, curvature, train length, or pulling power. Now that we're entering an era when even N scale trains may be able to fit current-keepers, this may be less of a problem. But for now, the fleet of N that I have needs all the electric pickup it can get!

Some guys love it, some hate it, and my thought is that if you think you need it, might as well give it a shot (assuming cost isn't a factor for you). It does come off easily enough if you decide it isn't what you need.