Distinguishing parallel tracks

The Stacy St. Yard complex on the Burrlington Northern ended up being a sea of parallel tracks. This is partly because it began in a different house as a seven-track staging yard, and then I converted it to a working yard. For many years there were seven parallel tracks of unpainted flex track, and it was difficult to tell which tracks were main tracks and which had other uses. Different colors of ballast would be an obvious solution, but it takes time to do. A few months ago we did ballast the two main tracks in a light grey to make it clear that those were the main tracks. But the rest of the tracks still looked the same. Recently, we decided to paint the rails different colors to represent their usage, and to paint the ground between them to create several "zones". The photo below shows the result. At the top is the "house track", painted a rusty color. Next is the "mud track", which was used for temporary storage of cars set out by passing trains, colored a muddy color. The next two are the ballasted main tracks with a dark grey rail color. The rest of the tracks are in the yard, painted "rail brown", but the first three are arrival/departure tracks, so we put grey paint on the ground between them, and then for the classification tracks we painted earth and weeds. It will be nice to get these tracks ballasted, but for now this rail and ground paint is already a big improvement.

Hopefully this will give crews a better instant visual cue as to which tracks are which.

We also put labels on the tracks, but of course they only work when cars aren't covering them up.

These last two pictures also show the complexity of the yard layout, hence the need for cues to distinguish track purposes. In the photo below, to the right of the main classification ladder in Stacy St. is the "Waterfront Yard", which was used for supporting the MILW car barge operation, and we also use it for handling runs to Harbor Island and West Seattle.