And I'm not talking about scratching an itch, (although this hobby caqn become an itch 
, ).
I read somewhere long ago that to look for tampered with tin plate trains, check the metel tabs and connections.
If there are scratches around the tabs, the piece has centianly been tampered with and parts replaced and pieces created from a parts box.
saw a tinplate piece on line that looked interesting and in the photos you could plainly see scratches where someone had taken it apart and/or put it together with parts from other sources.
Buyer beware!!
Happy Hunting!!
!
