Building a model railroad ‚"‚€‚" especially a room- or basement-sized layout ‚"‚€‚" takes a lot of time. In his new book, Tony Koester shares many invaluable time-saving tricks he's learned over the decades as an accomplished modeler and author. Using LDEs (Layout Design Elements) with staging. Efficient layout construction tips and techniques. Time-effective methods to get a layout built and operating.