Questions:
Who knows of 1&1/8 straight steerer 40mm rake forks for 26 inch (559's) wheels and disk brakes?
Can anyone confirm my suspicion that heavily loaded rear panniers lightens the front in their experience?
Moving the rear axle rearward was a smart move?
Any experienced touring riders or frame builders have any further suggestions or experience?

Background: I am building a touring bike in the form of a heavily modified gas pipe piece of Americana from the 70's. The frame I am modifying originated with 457mm chainstays, 27x1 inch wheels and 70 degree head and seat tube angles and had 50.8mm of rake. This yielded a trail of 71mm from the OEM.

For my wife's bike of the same make/model I converted to 700c, and installed forks with a 43mm rake. This shortened the front center 8 mm & yielded a trail of 78mm. Furthermore a 0 offset seatpost was installed bringing the rider 25mm forward.
The combined effect of shortening the front center and adding weight to the front wheel produced a very stable bike at speed.
55 kph is indeed borderline boring; Exactly what you'd want for going down mountain passes.

Given this experience, and success, I am modifying bike number 2. With a focus on touring. I plan on doing much the same thing as above but with disc forks and 26 inch wheels. To this end, I have made the appropriate changes to the head tube to accept 9/8 straight steerer to give me access to the wide world of parts commonly available for the last 2 decades. To accomplish the same 78mm of trail, I estimate I would need disc forks with 40mm of offset. I have been satisfied with Avid BB7's and a 180mm disc. I plan on using this combination again.
Question: who knows of 1&1/8 straight steerer 40mm rake forks for 26 inch (559's) wheels and disk brakes?

In looking at all the pics of loaded tour bikes, the rack and panniers seems to weight either on, or behind the rear wheel. Moving the CG back seems a bad idea. So, the decision was made to move the rear drop outs. Parts are being cut by water-jet as I write. When done the chain-stays will have been extended to 508mm, the stays will have been properly reinforced and spread to 132.5 to accept commonly available wheel sets, but the mount points for the racks have remained in place for usual rack placement. Loading on-top-of/in-front-of the rear axle seems like it would at worst be neutral, and at best improve cg placement with load over conventional.
Can anyone confirm my suspicion that heavily loaded rear panniers lightens the front? Moving the rear axle rearward was a smart move?

Switching from 700Cx25 to 26x1.25-1.375 would lower the whole bike 1.1 inches but would make for a standard 50/34 crank-set and Ultegra 11/40 gear combo 20.6-110 gear inches, as opposed to 700C's 23-121.5 gear inches and would thus be about 10% easier when fully loaded.
Any experienced touring riders or frame builders have any further suggestions or experience?