Scott, I recommend the cookie cutter style that Jeff just mentioned in Lynn Westcott's book. I bought the book with a cover price of $2.50 (a tidy sum for a teenager back in the late '60s) and I still have it. I have used it on more than one layout with success. This go round, I opted for a modular, partial tabletop, partial open approach. The idea was that I could take it apart and put it back together once for one move if that comes to pass. It has been much more awkward for me to get the transition from level to grade to higher level correct. The cookie cutter method makes those transitions just flow by the slight bending of the plywood as long as you place the joints between plywood sections either on the level or mid grade and scab them together well. By the time I got to adding grades, I was really committed and did a lot of shaving off material and in fact made a semi cookie cutter on two transitions. I should have started building a grade as soon as I had a little benchwork built. I may have opted to tear it all out and start over cookie cutter, taking the Sawzall to it if we move. 
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