When I put down the track in my yards, I used to different techniques: On my main yard, I simply painted the plywood with Mars black and while it was wet, laid down the track and sprinkled cinders on it. On the other yard, which is smaller, but fairly complex, and adjacent to the main lines, I used sheet cork and also painted it with Mars black and sprinkled cinders on while wet. Color photos of sidings and yards of the Burlington Route showed they were very dark, as contrasted to most of the mains which are light gray in color. Some of my main lines are not ballasted, with the roadbed the color of the surrounding scenery (dark brown, with various shades of grass sprinkled on while wet. In one run, I have recently ballasted the double main with medium dark gray ballast. Not sure how I like that stretch (about 2-1/2 feet long). I may decide to also ballast the double main up the 2-1/2% grade. I'll try to post some photos, but am pretty busy with paperwork right now.