Hi Eric
Yep, that's how it is eventually wired. It's those resistors I didn't know the value of. Having blown a 555 timer I realised the 'benefit' (read 'reason') of a resistor and as such was trying to work out the value of those resistors to protect the transistors. Having read about ohms law I assumed it was R = V/I but that is obviously not how you work it out given my 0.24 Ohms result.
I looked at the schematic and T11 has a 10k resistor and it does activate the timer. So I tried one on my breadboard and it works. I have no idea why though, or how to actually work out what value resistor I should use
Angie