Major milestone: I've got the 1 Hz working. Mains frequency is given to the rightmost dekatron, which spins with 50 steps per seond, that gives 5 full rotations per second. The outputs from states '0' and '5' are taken, inverted by an E90CC triode. This gives a 10Hz pulse train, which is given to the second dekatron, which makes 10 steps per second and therefore one full rotation in a second. See the attached movie in the files section.