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Sounds like you have the rear trucks dragging and the fronts are taking up the slack, or trying to.
Something is wrong, that doesn't happen normally.
The rear motor is the one that has the tach tape, so the front one just receives the same motor voltage. If the front truck loses traction, the wheels will spin up, that's the way it works.
Seems prototypical to me!
I often wish my ATSF Y3b's had a more independent drive train and the front and rear drivers would slip and sync in and out. The sound set has the drivers going in and out of sync but the wheels never do!
You need to adjust your wheelie bars. I'm sure this is affecting your RT's and 60ft times....
Oh wait..sorry we're talking trains here.
I got nuthin' Must be the eggnog talking 
have a good Christmas!
Some RK have vertical motors vice the single Pittman of the Premier Line. I am with John you have an issue with the other truck. If your hearing grinding the worm and drive gear are not meshed correctly. Is the motor loose. The screw under the truck may be out or loose. One direction allows motor to lift up and grind or slip gears. Other direction drives motor down so it may work with loose screw.
Check for linkage binding also. This is not normal and operating like this risk internal gear damage if it is loose and slipping. G
Open it up and check for a motor that is loose causing gear bind. George and John are correct.
The RK Big Boy has two vertical motors.
Not sure about the scenario, yet - but, like the real thing, if your front (pilot) truck has
become adjusted downwards too much for some reason, it will hold the front engine off the rails enough to affect the adhesion.
This should indeed be a 2-motor RK layout. I'm very familiar with the 2-8-8-2 version. Never had this problem.
Even though they look completely different, these RK "articulateds" (not really) are actually pretty much mechanically the same as a typical O-gauge diesel: rigid frame, 2 swiveling motorized trucks, one at each end.
Not much to go wrong there. But there are those pilot and trailing trucks...
As I recall that RK Big Boy, the chassis is a pretty thin flat piece of steel, maybe it's bent a bit and that's enough to cause the traction issues. Are all the screws tight, and is the chassis level without pinching anything and deforming it?
I do live down the road, it's about 1400 miles of road, but still... 
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