I bought the loco and caboose way back in the day. Didn't get the TV since I already had access to a similar unit sold for the Fischer-Price PXL-2000 camcorder.
The battery drain problem was well-known. The precise reason for it was not--the camera would only operate at 8.4v and above. So your 9V battery would only need to lose a volt or so before the camera stopped working. Lionel later supplied a battery holder that allowed you to hook up 6AA cells to power the camera. With greater capacity (MAh) RailScope could transmit much longer (although would still poop out when the pack voltage dropped below 8.4)
(It's not known if anyone experimented with a 9.6v NiCD arrangement. Such a pack would put out its rated voltage until it was almost completely exhausted, then suddenly fall off.)
Lionel intended users to put the battery pack in a boxcar or similar enclosed car coupled behind the loco. In my case, I found a surplus RailScope shell at a train show, and over time equipped it with a chassis, fuel tank and trucks, making it a fitting companion to the original loco, that also held the battery pack (never did address the inconvenience of removing the shell in order to change out the batteries, nor did I equip the two units with a proper plug connector. Last time I ran them I pulled some 20-ish MPC autoracks with it, which was pretty much its limit if the wobbling was any indication
I still have my two units, they await their turn on my test track behind a whole pile of newer stuff.
---PCJ
