Good question about the black paint. The area is fairly shaded right now... but my intention is to cover with plantings and rocks. I don't think I'll get into ballast at the moment. With the elevated nature, and the lack of desire to import yards of dirt, I might just slip some material under the track to hold ballast.
I'll read out on the black paint. I picked it so the roadbed would be less conspicuous to my visitors.
I enjoy blogging my photos, just FYI, I use Picasa, a free program to manage my digital photos, and a account on blogger.com. The great feature is that I can select up to 4 photos at a time and click one button to have them automatically post to my blog.
If shad is looking for a useful feature on MLS, this would be a great one... Garden railroad blogging!