I think that the first full length dome was used on the Milwaukee Road 'Olympian Hiawatha' luxury train of 1952.
By coincidence I was looking at a Youtube video of it only last week. It's a great film. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RevpfzJPqiQ

Still mostly hook and loop (tension lock), but narrower than they used to be. Some also come with European NEM couplers.

This website shows the light connections for the 6 pin NEm 651 decoder. It's in Dutch, but the diagram looks easy to follow.
http://www.floodland.nl/aim/info_nem_connectoren_1.htm

Will Hay's passion was astronomy. The most prominent white spot on Jupiter of the last century was discovered by him.
The 'real' Gladstone was the Hawthorn Leslie 2-4-0T Northiam. http://www.portishead.f2s.com/wcpr/Stock/Locos/Northiam/northiam.html
The wheeltapping scene was filmed at Hertford North station.

Quote from the Tortoise manual, "As mentioned earlier, the motor in the TORTOISE is powered continuously and merely stalls out at the end of the throw." The stall current is stated in the manual as 15-16 ma.
http://www.amhobby.com/download/man-tortoise.pdf

Tortoise motors require continuous power to hold the blade against the stock rail. A capacitor discharge unit gives a momentary burst of power which is suitable only for solenoid motors.
For a full explanation of how the different types of point/turnout motors operate see Brian Lamberts website. http://www.brian-lambert.co.uk/Electrical.htm#Point%20Motor%20Wiring.

Tortoise motors are of the stall current type and cannot be used with a CDU, (Capacitor Discharge Unit).

Did you read the instruction book?

The N700 is the latest Shinkansen set running in Japan on the Tokaido/San'yo lines, starting operation on July 2007, and is used on the premium 'Nozomi' services. JR Central has the 'Z' series, with 81 sets planned, and JR West has the 'N' series, with 16 sets planned. When the total 97 sets are constructed in 2011, the current 700 & 500 sets used on 'Nozomi' services will be downgraded to 'Hikari' & maybe even 'Kodama' services....
From the Japanese Model Train Newsletter. http://jmtn.wordpress.com/2007/12/22/kato-n700-shinkansen-model-review/

Carry out a Stall Current test as shown on Brian Lamberts website. http://www.brian-lambert.co.uk/DCC.htm#STALL%20CURRENT%20TEST
You need the dial switch on your multimeter pointing to 10A and the leads , one in the common and the other in the 10A socket as most motors stall at half an amp on n gauge and 1 Amp on H0.

This article should be of help. http://www.trainweb.org/fredatsf/

If you buy some Kato track later, you will need the KATO 20-045 conversion piece to connect Tomix to Kato track.

In a review of Ambrose's 'Nothing Like it in The World' on UtahRails.net,  the authors say "It is a far cry from the truth. In the opinion of many railroad historians this history can be relegated to the list of some of the worst examples of the true history of the Pacific Railroad yet published. He should be ashamed of himself."
http://utahrails.net/articles/ambrose.php

All my children are DCC equipped. 

Petroleum based Vaseline attacks rubber. I only use lubricants that are specially formulated for model railroads which have been tested as safe.