Contragulations Ed, And Jim thanks for all the insperation you give and the talent you share with everyone. I enjoy following this thread even if I don't contribute, I still love following along.
Moving on: I've been in the hobby for about a dozen years. During that time I've made a couple of small contributions to the hobby. Back in 2007 Micro Trains came out with plastic ballasted track. Z scale needed that product. I was moderator of the largest Z scale site in those days. Soon folks where in a panic. "When will MT come out with smaller pieces of track?" Basically anything larger than a simple oval would mean some serious pushing and pulling. So I came up with this:
Measure the section you need to cut out.
Cut twice through center of holes
take the piece out
Clip off the beads that hole the track to the plastic.
Next up is more a contribution to Z Scale than model railroading as a whole. As Z began to grow up around 2008 there was some bridges and a few kits and most of the rest was scratch built. For those making layouts on very important thing was missing-a turntable. I put my mind to the issue and came up with a turntable easily built by anyone who had $5 to spare.
What parts will I need?
1/4" plastic strip from you LHS. Two N scale gondolas.
Top of a Big Gulp plastic cup.
Turn the N gondolas upside down. Cut to length and glue. I put some wood strips along the track.