11th Street #2, Louisville, KY

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 5-27-20*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of Modern Industries 8 inch lights and 2 pairs of Safetran 8 inch lights.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of US&S 8 inch lights, 1 RACO 8 inch light, and 1 GRS Lex-C 8 inch light.

On May 27th, I went out to 11th Street in Louisville to get this crossing in action since it was a rather nice & classic one. After a little while of waiting, Q688 came crawling up the CSX and onto the Louisville & Indiana Railroad on its way to Indianapolis with an ES40DC leading a YN2 AC44CW.

This crossing is, IMHO, a rather great one and one I'm glad I was able to record. It appears that originally, these signals were a pair of old PRR cantilevers with all US&S 8 inch lights, but then, in the 1960s, one of the mast lights on the closer cantilever was struck and replaced with a RACO 8 inch light. Then, in the 1980s, the far cantilever was replaced entirely by Conrail with a newer Harmon cantilever, likely featuring all Modern Industries 8 inch lights, followed-up by the overhead lights being replaced later on in the 80s or 90s.
The only changes that I've noticed to these signals since the LIRC took over in the 90s were the replacement of the cats-eyed crossbuck on the closer signal (sometime between 2014 and 2017), the lights all being repainted (sometime between 2017 and 2019), and the addition of 3 Tracks signs sometime after May of 2019. The US&S lights on this side of the cantilever appear to be rather dim and I'm not sure why.
Another interesting thing here is the wayside signal seen on the left there (by the 11th Street sign). It appears that when the LIRC originally installed it, it was a two-aspect head, but, for whatever reason, it was converted to a fixed approach signal sometime between 2011 and 2014.
Thankfully, before Q688 arrived, some clouds here rolled in which made the lighting better for this shot. I would've shot this side regardless (as, IMHO, this is the much more interesting angle), but it's nice that it didn't turn out too backlit.