Trainman2001, I know these are not original ideas, but what I did was to spray both the track and ties with Floquil rail brown before putting down ballast. As you show in your photo, both rails and ties on the prototype get that "brown" look. I then use roofing granules for the ballast. As you can see they can come in mixed colors (I use two different ones - a brown for the main lines and a grey for the yards, secondary lines).
