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This track has some beautiful switches, and although they are not perfect, I have not had to buy many replacements. (I will be addressing the issue of repair and replacement of switches in another post). I chose to paint my track very carefully using Fleck-Stone paint, which gives a ballast look without the loose material between the rails. I have always been a little neurotic regarding ballast laying so close to moving trains, with their gears and electric motors! I wonder if I am alone in this, since I have never seen it mentioned in the model railroading press.
I used 1/16” wide ‘Deco Tape’ from the art supplies store to cover the rails, adding blue painters tape when switches were involved to protect moving parts, points and levers. Then I would apply grey primer from directly above (to prevent spray on the rail sides) and later apply Fleck-Stone the same way. Fleck-Stone tends to clog the nozzle and generally does not store well, so do a can’s worth of track at a time if you can.
After a thorough drying in a very well-ventilated space (preferably outdoors) I sat in front of the television set with my track, a small brush and a bottle of Burnt Umber , to paint the track ties one by one. It sounds boring but it actually goes quite quickly, and I used the opportunity to paint some ties only half way, or with a space in the middle. This provides the illusion of sunken ties, and really improves the overall realism of my layout. Main lines tend to have more ties showing, sidings and branch lines show less.
This stage of my work occurred before my involvement with Roads and Rails, so I had no employee discount to save money on layout necessities. So I was on eBay, perusing the listings of people who think their broken Tyco train sets are worth a King’s Ransom, and found a listing for brand new Life-Like Power-Loc track. I needed adapters to use it with my E-Z track, but I found those from the same seller and used it for my layout’s elevation changes and hidden yard. This track really has the advantage when going up or down, due to the sideways attachment method. So my layout actually uses both kinds of track we sell in the store. In addition, Atlas Code 100 Snap-Track is used for my bridges, where ballast is not an issue.