Lionel 3000 TV Transmitter Locomotive

It was called Railscope, and at minimum you are missing the tan "box" that converts the signal to black and white video. The video signal was transmitted through the rail back to the receiver box, and was subject to a lot of interference from a variety of sources. It was very tricky to make it work well. This was cutting edge stuff when it came out in the late 80's. Today there are much better ways to get a color picture.

I was not planning on using it for making awesome youtube videos - it was more for the rarity/unique/historical aspect that I am interested. I do not have the tan receiver box - does anyone know where I may get one or how to build equivalent circuitry?

There is a bare Rail Scope receiver board for sale on eBay at the moment.

The 8-page user Rail Scope user manual (which includes tips for getting the system to work) can be downloaded from Lionel's web site.

I just took a peek at the receiver board - price is a little steep for the novelty, especially since it is not in the housing. However, it looks like a fairly simple circuit from the top side, but then I saw the IC on the bottom side. Since I don't need to broadcast on a channel and can get away with simple composite, maybe the IC is not necessary. I presume that the video is sent composite over the rails and then the ac is filtered out giving the pure analog picture which then gets modulated on to channel 3 or 4. Skipping the channel modulation, would it be possible to hack something together?

Didn't it come with a small red TV?

The Lionel-branded TV was optional.

Jim, it didn't come with the TV. That was sold separately.