Since you're painting it before laying it, I would also solder leads to each section in advance.

You can solder to the underside of the rail and your leads will be invisible when you lay the track.

- Bill

You'll find the larger profile of code 80 enhances reliability.  That said, since the rail is larger than scale I would consider going with a darker color to downplay this issue.  Rusty orange or light tan will really stand out.    Grimy black with a roof brown over spray is one option.  If you to use rattle cans I suggest Rustoleum Camo. paints  "Earth Brown."

If you don't plan to solder feeders to every track (every other track should be the minimum) then you'll need to scrape the paint off where the joiners go, slip the joiners on and repaint the areas you removed paint.

Lance

I would lay the track first to make certain that the track arrangement is the way you want it and the trains run reliably before ever painting the track!  With N scale track I would paint it with a darker color such as railroad tie brown or krylon camouflage. This was actually recommended to me by a professional model builder. The darker color helps hide the oversized rail and spike heads. When painting the track do so before any scenery is applied! Good luck!

Make certain you protect the switch points from paint due to electrical pick up/contact!

Less work--Make all your electrical connections to the track before painting. This includes points and frogs. I recommend solder as I have not found another way that will last over a lot of years.

Paint will creep into any connection the same way corrosion will, but paint is quicker.

I use a piece of wood to clean the rail surface before the paint has a chance to fully set--it cleans without scratches.

Terry

Having installed and painted my share of track, I'd advise against trying to paint before the track is completely installed and fine tuned.  Get everything running perfectly, and only then consider paint.  If you pre-paint, you'll need to come back later and paint rail joiners anyway, plus the process of tuning up track usually requires filing around rail joints, frogs and points, so you'll still have plenty of paint work after installation to recover from that.  There's also the probability (?) that scenery work will create some kind of mess that will ruin parts of your track paint, no matter how much care is taken to protect it.  I like to wait until all the scenery work is done, and paint track as the last step in a scene before ballasting.

Taking the time to finish your track with paint and weathering is most definitely worthwhile.  Shiny plastic ties and bright silver rails kill realism quickly for the whole scene.

... on painting track, especially turnouts, is contained in the article:

PARALLEL LINES: How I Finish Turnouts - by Tim Warris

This article appears in the 3rd (quarterly) issue of MRH (MRH-2009-Q3v2.pdf) and can be found in the back issues library on the web site.

This article, although focusing mainly on turnouts, also applies to regular track painting and ballasting.

[My exception to the article is the recommendation of Floquil paint - although I have no objection to the product per se, I prefer acrylics and have used them successfully while following Tim's other advice.]

I AM using N scale Atlas code 80 and I like the appearance with painting per Tim's advice.

"You mileage may vary"

You didn't mention if you were using FLex Track or not. In my experience, painted flex track is hard to bend and flex. I may also cause the paint to scrape off of the sides of the rails if you try flex and bend the painted track.

I agree with the other posts: Lay your track work first. That way you can test the track, and get the bugs out. You may discover that you might have some electrical issues, such as shorting because of turnout frogs that need to be insulated, or you may decided to have isolated blocks in certain areas. 

I also feel that pre-painted track will create some connection problems at the rail joiners. I don't solder all of my rail joiners, it's a lot of work, but if you have the tools and time, it is good advice. Remember to take precautions so that you don't damage your track and turnouts with too much heat.

My first post so hope I have pressed correct buttons ;-)

Rob (Spangler), I very much like the colour on your picture, can you expand on what you used.

Thanks

Roger

My basic track color for everything in the photo above is Floquil "Railroad Tie Brown."  The industry spur was later dry-brushed with some acrylic craft paint; a generic Walmart brand "Tan" and Americana "Driftwood."  Some of these were applied in greater concentration to individual ties after the track as a whole was weathered. I also added some pastel dust rust weathering after ballast was complete.