Josh, I don’t know about everybody else, but I am planning on lining up the straight track according to the pennlug standard that you can link to in the reference forum:
http://pennlug.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Ballasted-Dbl-Track-Main-Line-Instructions.pdf
i do not plan to do a complete ballast (i don’t think i have that many dark gray plates anyway) or tile it (it’s probably a personal quirk but i’m not a big fan of black against old dark gray) but after I MILS the plates, I will be using these instructions for reference for the height and alignment of the track, I can do at least two baseplates worth and I should get them done in the next several days.