You could try Birkbeck.

If the worst comes to the worst and Oxbridge rejects your application, there's always Oxford Brookes or Anglia Ruskin.

Done.

Since a PhD is basically a training to do research and write up that research, the more you can demonstrate to the external examiner that you can do these, by having articles published, the better.

It makes their job easier if half the thesis has already been peer reviewed and I was always taught to make things easy for examiners.

I'm 53 and a PhD student. You're never too old.

This is the OU page about credit transfer: http://www.open.ac.uk/study/credit-transfer/

My advice would be to simply tell the truth.

When asked why I wanted to come to my current university, my reply to the question "Why this "institution?" was simply that it's the closest to home (moving away is not an option) and the supervisor I wanted was interested in railways, like me. I knew nothing of the resources available.

I'm now in my third year and I seem to be doing okay.

I can't see what's wrong with your saying that you want to go to X University simply because you like the project offered and you want to work with Dr/Prof Y.

I was a distance learning student at two different universities and on neither's certificates is "DL" mentioned.

After I've finished my PhD, I'll be aiming for a DSc.

At my university, if you transfer partway through a PhD, the "clock" isn't reset to zero, but continues from whenever you started at the university: anyone transferring to a new topic only has the remainder of their PhD registration (less than four years) to do a whole PhD.

You say you're in month 4. If you're allowed to transfer, could you do a whole PhD in 44 months instead of 48 (assuming your university treats transfers the same way as mine)?

And sometimes the PhD student is the the first author.

I'm in my third year and I've seen my supervisor once a week (apart from Christmas and his holidays) since the start. Part of the reason for this frequency may be because of the open-ended nature of what I'm doing.

In our one-hour meetings we talk about what I've done the previous week and what I should do the following week. Sometimes we also talk about what he's doing and on a couple of occasions I've gone away and solved problems he's been working on. At his prompting, one of my solutions is going to turn into a research paper in my name only.

Mine charges £250 per four months in the fourth year. There is no fifth year.

While you're in the academic position that TreeofLife suggests, you could write lots of research articles (80-120) and go for a DLitt or DD.

The Open University employs associate lecturers for each module they offer. It's part-time and exactly which hours you work in any week are up to you. The pay is not outstanding, but it's a step up from teaching A-levels. The vacancies here change regularly: http://www.open.ac.uk/jobs/tutors/vacancies