I made this train table from a Richard Scarry activity table and a bunch of train pieces from Target for my son. The original tabletop was busy, so I covered it. A quiet green surface made room for a different world.
The tracks went over and under each other. There were red bridges, raised curves on wooden supports, a station at the edge, and a turntable that connected several routes. I anchored the pieces together into one train world.
I wanted openings in the side where trains could enter and leave. They became parking spots instead. I also considered a grid of magnets so a house and other pieces could snap into fixed places. That meant modifying every object. After I watched him play with it for a while, I realized that the rest of what I had planned either would not have mattered to him or would just have irritated him. The kids could put things on the table. I left it out.
The layout stayed put, but everything else could go wherever they put it. They played with it.