In the beginning we laid out a table that rolled with the topography of the land it was built on. If you look at the layout here you can see that it is not flat; it rolls just like the real world. This pic below is from when we first started. Tracks, once they are laid, will rise and fall with the landscape and really be beautiful with the trains moving on them.
Our outdoor layout has been evolving since this early picture, with the addition of a lake to hold fish! This picture (above) is a little over a year old. To get an idea of the size, I am standing at the side of the layout dreaming about trains. We had to stop last year because Covid, but now we are rocking again!