Troubleshooting homemade DC power supply

Thanks bertus, you saved me wasting my time on the divider - I guess I didn't think very hard about that when I wrote it as it now the obvious dawns on me that a high Ω before the regulator would reduce the current to virtually nothing!

Thank you very much also for explaining about the use of the tracking preregulator.

Compliments to this forum and the people who contribute, what a pleasure it is to find a lot of really knowledgeable experts and enthusiasts who take the time to help out beginners.