Earlington Road (KY 1337), near Madisonville, KY

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 2-6-26*

Signal on the far left: 1.5 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with Safetran Non-fading LEDs and 1 Safetran 12x24 inch light with a Safetran Fading LED.
Signal on the near left: 1 Federal Signal 12x20 inch light with a Safetran Non-fading LED, 1 Federal Signal 12x20 inch light with a Safetran Fading LED, and a high-pitched Safetran Type 3 electronic bell.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of Progress Rail 12x24 inch lights with Harmon Fading LEDs.

On February 6th, vtgrxrman and I went up to Providence, KY, to catch their monthly siren test. As we had plenty of time before the test, we decided to stop by this crossing on the Paducah & Louisville Railway mainline to see if we could catch anything on the PAL before the test. Thankfully, when we got here, we saw that something was coming east towards Madisonville, so we got set-up and waited. After a bit of waiting (which was slightly annoying thanks to the crossing malfunctioning every so often), we were able to catch our first train of the day: an eastbound PAL local with a PAL road slug (rebuilt out of an ex-SOO GP35), a PAL GP40-3, and an A&O GP38-2 (which appears to be a derated GP40-2) for power! Definitely nice finally getting something on the PAL, as I hadn't ever filmed them before. The PAL is also now the fifth Class II railroad that I've ever filmed a train on (with the NYSW, FEC, MRL, and INRD being the ones before them, though I didn't get the INRD train I caught on INRD trackage), interestingly enough.

This crossing is a pretty nice one, and I'm glad I was able to get it as my first PAL crossing. It appears that the signals here were originally installed by the ICG back in the 1970s, though I'm not entirely sure if the extra signal on the left here would've been installed with the others or if it was a slightly later knock-down replacement. Either way, in the late-90s or the 2000s, the PAL replaced the bell here with a General Signals electronic bell. Then, sometime between 2008 and when EthantheRailfanner visited here in 2020, several changes occurred. First-up, though I'm not entirely sure when, the PAL completely upgraded this crossing to LED. The far-left signal here had its original L&W 12x20s replaced with a set of Safetran 12x20s with Dialight Ball LEDs while the right-hand signal here had its L&W 12x20s replaced with the current set of Progress Rail 12x24s with Harmon Fading LEDs. Not sure if one would've occurred before the other, but, either way, the near-left signal here retained its original light heads unlike the other two signals, only getting them upgraded with a mix of a Safetran Fading and a Safetran Non-fading LED. In the same time-frame, though likely sometime in the mid to late-2010s, the bell here was replaced again, this time with the current high-tone Safetran Type 3 electronic bell! Finally, sometime after 2023, the PAL replaced the lights on the far signal once again, this time replacing them with the current Safetran 12x24s with Safetran LEDs in them. At least, I assume they were replaced, though I suppose it's possible that the PAL swapped the backgrounds on the existing heads from 20 inch ones to 24 inch ones and replaced all of the LEDs in them as well.
Thankfully, nothing else too major appears to have changed here since then, which is good to see. This is now the fourth high-tone Safetran Type 3 e-bell I've filmed, and amusingly it's also on a gateless crossing like the other three I've filmed, if you count a bell-only install as a type of gateless crossing, of course. Nice to see the extra signal here, which is placed rather far off to the side thanks to the sharp bend in the road on this side of the crossing, still has its original Federal Signal 12x20 inch light heads here as well. Also cool to see that the bell is mounted on the extra signal here too, it reminds me of some L&N installs down in the panhandle of Florida.
Slightly annoyingly, this crossing was malfunctioning for a second or two every few minutes or so while we were waiting for the train here, and it startled us nearly every time it happened. It appears that KYTC had salted the road here due to the recent winter storm, of which plenty of snow was still on the ground from. However, as this snow was melting, it appears that it'd mix with the salt from the road and briefly trip the crossing before the salt water then either refroze or evaporated. The crossing actually did one of these brief malfunctions right after shutting off, somewhat amusingly.

https://www.rxrsignals.com/Kentucky/L-Q ... arlington/