Weathering--trains, track, scenery, structures, etc.--is certainly good if you are striving for the utmost realism in overall appearance. But my personal feeling is that weathered preformed track (with plastic roadbed) is almost always going to fall short in presenting a truly realistic appearance. For that matter, so will using any track that has a center rail. There's just no getting around that.
Many great 3-rail layouts--and there are sure plenty of them around--certainly mitigate that by employing techniques that tend to draw attention away from plastic roadbed or a center rail, and the end result often is, or certainly can be, a layout in which the overall effect of realism dominates over the few limiting factors that may detract from true realism.
As it is with everything else in this hobby, it's strictly a matter of personal preference and one's willing investment in time and resources to achieve the end result that he or she can be happy with. Others can provide advice and recommendations, of course, but nobody can really tell you what you must do to achieve the level of realism you desire.
My current layout is equipped with FasTrack…a good amount of it. Although I'm perfectly happy with this track system in terms of operational reliability, I made a decision some months ago to replace all this track with GarGraves track and Ross switches, all of which will be laid on Woodland Scenics foam roadbed. As soon as I get my lazy butt in gear, that replacement will get under way. But for now the already accumulated boxes of track, switches, and roadbed are sitting in a stack on the floor alongside one end of the layout.
It's not likely that I will ever be weathering my locomotives and rolling stock, but even that is subject to change at some point, especially in regard to at least some select items that see the most frequent operation.
The beauty of this hobby is that you never run out of possibilities, challenges, and new things to try or do. And nothing is fixed in stone, so anything and everything can be changed as the will and ability (financial, time, and otherwise) entices you to make changes. It's just a matter of setting a goal for yourself and then moving forward to achieve it.
