Decisions, Decisions

I vote for weathering first, that way you can hide any "overzealous" painting/ weathering  of the rails with ballast. 

I would weather the tracks first. I don't think you would want everything the same color.

I painted my track before putting it down. For ballast, I chose Brennan's Original Gray. I dumped it into a container and mixed in about a spoonful of Brown Rich Soil Tint from Scenic Express. It toned down the  brightness of the ballast pretty well.

I'm sure others will chime in with their methods. Good luck with whatever you decide.

 I had no choice. I had already laid my track and ballasted. I started weathering cars and realized I had to weather the rails as well. Was done with an airbrush and no masking. Whatever hit the ballast tended to just give it a dirty toned down look. Ballast was a mix of dark and light grey Woodland Scenics.

Either way can achieve good effect as Dave C demonstrates above. You can come back and add a little more ballast to give it some variety if necessary. Try both!

Thanks Everyone for your participation, C.Sam, I believe I will try both techniques, when done correctly it can only add to the realism.  I’m a couple of months off of displaying my layout in its earliest stages but I will certainly will expose it to the forum first before thinking of anything else and hopefully both methods can be seen as professionally done as I can get them. In addition to the display of the layout, a critique, evaluation and/or recommendations could be made, which hopefully can take my work to another level. Again, thank you all for your participation.    - MARSHELANGELO