Having posted a while back in Modelling Questions, Hints and Tips about Peco's Wonderful Wagon kits, I received a whole ream of replies saying that I would do better not to bother wasting my time with the kit. Were they right? Was I about to waste time and money (both scarce resources to a student!) on something that would vaguely resemble a wagon if viewed short-sightedly through frosted glass on a foggy morning? Would the sprung buffers work? Would I melt the axleboxes? Read on, if you dare...

So, the first thing to arrive through the post was the Wonderful Wagon chassis kit and a set of Peco tension-lock couplings. The tension-locks are quite nice, actually, especially given their age, and when pulling, there is about 1-2mm of gap between the buffers of the wagons (using the WW chassis kit) which is impressive. The chassis kit was put to one side until the wagon bodyshell (a Dapol unpainted 4-plank open) arrived through the post, having been ordered at the same time as the chassis. The only thing I did note with the chassis kit was that no wheels were provided, nor bearings, the instructions recommending Peco's own wheels; I used Bachmann 8-spoke wheels, which would prove to be my downfall later on.

About 3 weeks later, my wagon body arrived, (due to a misunderstanding about billing and delivery addresses) and a quick dry-run showed that with minimal filing off of locating pegs (the Peco and Dapol ones, needless to say, not matching at all), the chassis kit would fit almost perfectly under the body.

I started by assembling the bufferbeams, with the very neat buffer springing mechanism, and attaching these to the end of the wagon. The couplings were attached (a nice, simple but secure snap-fit).

Now came the fun - the axleboxes in the Peco kit are for use with brass bearings, so a pack of top-hat bearings was acquired, and fitted into the axleboxes. Then, slotting them into the w-irons and testing for smoothness of travel (the importance of this being laboured in my advice thread). Now, just to spring the w-irons apart slightly and insert the axles-Oh dear. The Bachmann axles are about 1mm too long to fit. So, out with the soldering iron and a bit of bodging to melt the bearings into the axleboxes - not for the faint-hearted! Eventually, various bits of persuasion with a scalpel, a soldering iron, various files and some model oil resulted in something that fitted and moved relatively smoothly. Rinse, lather, repeat on the other axle. Glue to base of wagon between solebars.

After leaving to dry for a while, I discovered that the metal w-irons actually got in the way of the buffer springing mechanism, leaving the buffers rigid. *sigh* Dismantle, hack, file, melt, test fit, melt some more. At this point I was starting to question my sanity, but kept on going, being fairly close to the end. Eventually, I had a sprung, buffered chassis and body, needing only to fit the brake gear.

*SURELY* nothing could go wrong with the brake gear? As supplied, the Peco chassis kit comes with two sets of solebars, for 9' and 10' wheelbase wagons. The brake gear has two sets of brake shoes moulded, one for each wheelbase. The instructions say to cut off the appropriate brake shoes for the wheelbase of chassis being constructed, so I did, only to find that the shoes overlapped my Bachmann wheels again, so I cut up the brake gear and re-assembled it so it would fit.

You have now reached where I am currently. I *think* all I need to do now is paint it. Time will tell if the wagon will survive long enough to get painted before being smashed out of frustration. In fairness, despite the pain of actually assembling it, the chassis kit comes out quite nicely... At least in appearance. I still need to acquire some track and test-run it, but that's another story...