Ron, he apparently shifted his attention to you... PCRR/Dave, you lash out at the wrong guy... Ron M is a knowledgeable member of the Tinplate forum.
Stores could most certainly change things, even the department stores mixed and matched stuff in the prewar days, i have had evidence of this for years in the form of original hand written sales slips.
In case you were wondering, I was using the perspective of Lionel production methodology and with an understanding of how that works you might understand what I said. Hi volume production does not lend itself to that sort of thing. But if they did indeed produce it at the factory, there would be documentation. That is how Lionel did it.... Also, they NEVER sullied the numbering system (without a change in markings) PERIOD. They never put 655 plates on a 2655. It defeats the point of differentiation. There might have been a 2655x for example, but it doesn't make a lot of sense timing wise due to the direction Lionel was going with scale like freight cars..... I back-checked my catalogues and there is no mention in ANY prewar catalogues of transition cars.
Rather, I suspect that it was done at the retail level. This was fairly common, and shop owners wanted happy, repeat customers. Or, possible later in the postwar years some body modified some cars.... I ran this scenario by some of the most knowledgable collectors ( more that 500 years experience) and they agreed unanimously that what was described was never produced at the factory level.
