My GP is also useless, known as the pill pushers. Now if I have something needing a visit I have to email or phone the Dorset NHS. I'm 92 and now registered "housebound". In over 12 years with this GP I've only managed to get 2 doctors visits both times by a male locum, only saw a male doctor at the surgery one time and he was a locum.
The 2 male doctors who own/manage the practice, work out of different premises on the other side of town - never seen either of them, their local premises are staffed by all women GPs apart from occasional locums; the only time I was "happy" to have a female GP was for a prostate exam, the ladies have smaller fingers!!

It was always a sod of a job to ring the doctors to get an appointment. Lines not open until 08.00 then you find you're 18th in the queue (how does that happen?).
No internet bookings. I use the Patient Access website but really can only order repeat prescriptions as my GPs surgery doesn't allow contact off that site.

Now they've changed things again. To get an appointment you have to go to the surgery website and fill in a 'triage form'. If you're incapable of doing this you can call the surgery and the receptionist/telephonist will do that for you. You cannot ask her to make an appointment. Oh, and they are now called 'care navigators'.
What the hell kind or world are we living in?

The doctor's surgery obviously does not want their pristine waiting room to be filled up with oiks with maladies, nor for their 'care navigators' to actually do any work. If it wasn't for the fact my GP is quite a decent one I'd tell 'em where to stick it all and go elsewhere, but even that could be leaping from frying pan into fire
Grrrrrr

Quote from: GlenEglise on July 25, 2026, 07:59:58 PMCan anyone recommend a suitable supplier for NMT graphics to apply to Dapol Mk3 pantograph car?

Dapol don't make a Mk3 pantograph car. You'll need to modify the roof to include the pantograph well (and source a pantograph). 977993 is the pantograph car - plenty of photos on Flickr and Departmentals.com.

Quote from: njee20 on July 25, 2026, 08:10:20 PMPaint it and apply Railtec decals, IIRC they do new and old NMT logos.

Agree - don't bother applying vinyls to Dapol Mk3. Either use Farish Mk3 for the vinyl (if you can find them), or rework a Dapol Mk3. I would however add one step - Strip it, then paint it.

You'll get a better finish if you remove the factory applied livery first. Phoenix Super Strip is my go-to paint stripper as it doesn't affect the plastic.

Whilst it's stripped you'll be able to fill in any windows that don't exist on the prototype you're replicating.

Phoenix Paints will also sell you network rail yellow in tinlets or aerosol

Without re-reading much of John @Train Waiting  excellent thread, I'd like to add a bit more about compounding, which I don't think has been mentioned before (at least I hope not).

From, once again, the RCTS LNER green bible, talking about the N8 class, but applicable to many locos of the time.

Quote;

'A factor which made compounding attractive at that time [1886] that Class B [N8] was introduced, when low pressures were in use and before superheating (my emphasis, not just to this class) had been adopted, was the smaller expansion ration of the steam in each cylinder [of a compound loco], meaning that the temperature difference between exhaust and live steam was less. This meant that there was smaller loss due to cooling and condensation of steam entering the cylinders. The compounds were thus able to demonstrate and efficiency of the simple classmates'

End quote.

All of this class were changed to simples, with some being superheated. This was not the only class of locos to be so treated.

HTH is of some use to others reading this.

[information inside this style brackets] added to make sense of the extract.

Martyn

Quote from: njee20 on July 25, 2026, 08:10:20 PMVinyls would be rubbish on a Dapol mk3 anyway, too much relief on the body side. Paint it and apply Railtec decals, IIRC they do new and old NMT logos.

Agreed - they vinyls were designed for the Graham Farish smooth-sided Mk3 coaches. They could be used on the Dapol Mk3s also but did not look as a good.

Received my sound fitted Ragley Hall today, I was going to wait for the other one I had ordered (Kinlet Hall) to arrive, but my willpower crumbled very easily when I saw @Ensign Elliott 's pictures!

I am not typically a GW modeller (although I have a few locos) but as Halls were seen on the GC after Nationalisation, and regularly on cross-country workings I can justify a couple, and I am really pleased that is the case! The loco is superb, beautifully detailed and finished, runs sublimely and the sound file is excellent. Now to me it does not quite shade the new V2 as the best British N steam loco to date, but there really isn't much in it.

Personally I am not too fussed about the Hawksworth tender but understand why others will be wanting to wait, and I really hope this loco does well enough to justify another run quickly, such a lovely model of a really versatile prototype really deserves to do well.

As to the Dapol Hall, the kindest thing I can say is that it was an OK model for its time, but things have moved on, and in pretty much every respect possible the new Farish model absolutely blows it away in my opinion.

Roy

Quote from: njee20 on July 25, 2026, 08:10:20 PMVinyls would be rubbish on a Dapol mk3 anyway, too much relief on the body side. Paint it and apply Railtec decals, IIRC they do new and old NMT logos.

Thank you, nice to know.

GE

Quote from: jpendle on Yesterday at 07:04:52 PMAs we don't have a slightly bemused thread this one will have to do 

I decided to bite the bullet and buy a Dapol CL68, sound fitted, in TPE livery even though Dapol won't ship to the US.

"Felix" was just £150, so a real bargain.

My son and our grandchildren just came over so they brought it with them.

I just tried it out and it runs like a dream and the sound project sounds pretty good to me.
BUT I already have 2 TPE liveried CL68's 

For some reason I thought that I just had the one.

Old age is catching up on me 

John P

A good problem?

I too wanted one of those bargains but was stymied by Dapol.

As we don't have a slightly bemused thread this one will have to do 

I decided to bite the bullet and buy a Dapol CL68, sound fitted, in TPE livery even though Dapol won't ship to the US.

"Felix" was just £150, so a real bargain.

My son and our grandchildren just came over so they brought it with them.

I just tried it out and it runs like a dream and the sound project sounds pretty good to me.
BUT I already have 2 TPE liveried CL68's 

For some reason I thought that I just had the one.

Old age is catching up on me 

John P

In Scotland and N.Ire it's 71 and in England and Wales it's 75 before you're exempt. WHY?
I won't be safe until I'm 76 so 2 1/2 years