Tried to see if this concept is valid…when tehered to a 18 volt power supply it did move when I added an on board 9 volt not so much.pretty cool though . 
There’s an 0 gauge wind-up (Shuco?) of the real-life prewar German “Zeppellin” train. It was reproduced a few years ago. You can also get the LGB propeller powered toy in G - looks like a crashed airplane mounted on a flatcar, kids think it’s cute.
Sounds interesting!
Interesting project. My initial thoughts:
Start with a brushless motor that the RC guys are using nowadays.
At first cut, mount a motor, prop, motor controller, Lipo battery pack and a RC receiver on a flat car and run it with the RC transmitter.
If the performance is OK, then move on to figuring out how to use track power. 18vac into a magic conversion box (sorry folks, I’m a retired mechanical engineer - dangerous around electronics) to replace the lipo battery, then hack into LionChief or TMMC, or Legacy to talk to the motor controller?
Lionelsony - think this is possible?
You know, it might work better if you replace that Focke-Wulf FW-190 BMW radial and three-blade prop with a P-51’s Rolls-Royce Merlin engine with a four-blade prop!
[;)]
Or perhaps a 5,blade Spitfire prop!
Yes! And with the Rolls-Royce Griffon engine!
Yes, I’ve got one! It’s a Lionel reproduction made about 20 years ago. I don’t use it often but it’s a riot to watch!
Someone did an article on converting it to an electric motored version suitable to run on three-rail O Gauge track but that was written years ago, I don’t remember if it was in CTT or another magazine.
Pretty sure it was CTT. But then, what did I do this morning…??? [;)]
I like this idea. It’s very “AirPunk” to coin a phrase! [:D]