BOB WALKER posted:I may be incorrect, but I believe that currently the only way to get a battery powered train of collector/operator level is to have a currently available loco of some nature converted to battery power.
Kind of what I've done. When Ollies (deep discount store) was blowing out the Lionel Dinosaur sets, which used LionChief (not LC Plus), I bought couple of sets. I gutted one engine and put the control parts in a Lionel RS-3 AND hooked a battery up. In this case a 9 volt battery and it all worked. It was only a POC and the 9 volt battery pulling 3 cars ran for 15 minutes. At that point in time, I stopped as I had proven what I wanted. I was actually a little surprised the 9V battery ran that long. Yes it slowed down but never came to a stop. I've also modified a Lionel 4-4-2 steam lok (the mid to late 1980's version) with the LC guts and it worked fine (note: this mod used track power, NOT battery). That POC worked as expected. I had to put the electronics in the tender and ran two wires to the motor. Now, looking for my next POC project. 
Steve
