Ian White says:

The Walthers is a Shinohara product if I recall correctly. I haven’t used the Walthers flex track but I am using the Shinohara Code 83 switches. They are a beautiful looking product, the low rail profile looks very realistic. But just be aware they are very delicate, have had to use some Araldite a few times now to glue rails back to the ties after I had been a little too forceful with getting them into place! Cheers.

Greg Mcculloch says:

Ian White is correct.
I now use Micro Engineering code 83 and 70 track, and code 83 points. The points are that little bit “stronger” than Shinohara, had major problems with the code 70 no 6 switches.The flex track is is great, but don’t look at it sideways, or a tie/sleeper will detach from the rail web. I spike the track, not mini-nail, and after ballast and re-inserting the ties detached it looks great. M.E.also have rail joiners that allow one to go from 100 to 83, and 83 to 70. I find this a better option than using transition track – it uses less space.

Newman Atkinson says:

Ronald, Seems everyone uses a little bit of everything. I personally use Atlas code 100. The rail is taller than code 83 and is more forgiving if you put too much ballast down. Code 70 would be more equal in old railroading Older / modern railroading where it was placed in the yard and siding tracks where a lot of running was not going to happenwould have been code 70, Code 83 was more of the older Modern I call it main line rail. Your modern railroading would be closer to the code 100. it is a taller rail as is much of your welded rail is today on many railroads. But if you want to see 2 different rails side by side then look at Lafayette, Indiana where there are 3 tracks that go by the Amtrak station. You have 2 sets of shorter main line rail used bu Norfolk and Southern and 1 track used by CSX and Amtrak which is the taller rail. These different rails represent the weight capacity that the train can have on it much like the weight capacity would be on a highway bridge. But at the Lafayette location the tracks are side by side and they are very noticeable in the different height when looking at them. In modeling The actual use of different codes of track doesn’t really matter for actual weight capacity. But they can be the difference between wheel flanges rubbing the ties or not and especially older cheaper cars and engines where the wheel flanges were taller. And again it don’t take much ballast to start getting them to deep to interfere with your wheels. I have a friend that uses code 83 and in many places you can see the cars bouncing around because of too much ballast. The cars actually raise up off the rail as the flanges are riding on the ballast. As I said older cars with taller wheel flanges would actually ride on the ties even without the ballast. If you use a smaller code in your sidings and old yards you will need a conversion section of track to change from one code to the other or maybe connectors that change from one code to the other.
If you are modeling an older time frame such as heavy steam or near when steam was running along with early diesels then code 83 might be correct. If your modeling present day heavy diesels then code 100 would be more correct. and yes some railroads run shorter rail and others run the taller heavier rail. I am very satisfied with my code 100 rail and yes most of mine are modern large diesels and heavy coal cars, auto racks, large auto parts box cars. I am hand laying my own switches using single code 100 rail using the PC Tie method with great success. Now my nephew is modeling HOn3 narrow gauge equivalent to code 70 which also uses N scale rail connectors. His ties break all the time using the flex track for it as the ties are very delicate. My code 100 flex track comes in both would and concrete ties too and can stand up to a lot of miss handling when laying the track and also maintenance and cleaning. So it boils down to the time frame your modeling and just how much clearance you plan to have for your wheels. Be sure to look at Nickel silver rail vs older brass as brass tends to tarnish faster. I have a portable small layout I take to shows. The inner track is nickel silver and the outer track (my original track) is brass. During the show when talking to new prospective model railroaders they get to see the finger rub tests on each track and see the dirt and tarnish that comes off each from the running at the show. Yes the Brass is always dirtier.
from Newman Atkinson