I used Peco code 83 insulfrog on my mainline. Advantage is the frog is smaller than an Atlas and all my locos go through without any problems. Downside is there are some turnouts where the frogs short and the frog has to either be filed or painted with nail polish to insulate the area at the gap where the short occurs. Since I don’t need ground throws at the turnout because of the center spring and don’t need to power the frogs I figure these in the cost and now we’re a little closer to Atlas with less work.
I also use Peco code 100 insulfrog in my staging area. Cost less than the Code 83 with all the advantages. Downside is I had to shim the guide rails as this gap is generally too large and some cars/locos will derail.
The advantages of PECO go up if you do not need remote operation or electrical feedback and can just use their built in spring as a manual ground throw.
Since I want/use CTC and signaling on the main, and DC power route control even on branch/industrial trackage, that advantage is lost.
For decades I use nothing but Atlas switches and I also got caught up in the Atlas track shortage and went ME flex track and Peco medium switches and haven’t look back since.
I will use recycled ME flex track and Peco switches from my old ISL on my new ISL. HO scale long spikes (not track nails) works wonders when salvaging track.
My experience with how the track looks is, they are pretty much all good if you just want to run trains. It is when you take a good camera and let some that knows what they’re doing photography-wise, take some pic’s of the layout, that is when the different brand (looks) quality can jump out at you.
I bought my wife a Nikon D-5000 a few years ago and took it to a friends house so he could try the camera out on his layout. He knew what he was doing (photography wise) whereas I still don’t.[(-D] He had a wide yard made up with different brands of track as he had expanded as funds permitted, and one of the things that came out of the photo session was how the different track looked in photo’s. If I remember correctly, the Shinohara and Peco really looked great in the pic’s. That being said, it still boils down to personal preference.
My experiance when it comes to appearance, especially “in person”, is that rail painting, tie weathering, and ballast methods/choices all play a big role.
Sure, all the newer track looks better than ATLAS code 100, but after that it has a lot to do with your track “scenery” skills…even in photos.
Just my experiance, BUT I will conceed, I’m not much of a model photog myself…