9th Street (US 41/KY 107), Hopkinsville, KY
Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2025 10:50 am
*originally recorded on 10-4-25*
Signal on the left: 3 pairs of Modern Industries 12x20 inch lights with Leotek EV Series LEDs, a Safetran Type 3 electronic bell, a Safetran-branded Siemens gate mechanism, RECO LED gate lights, and an NEG LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 3 pairs of Modern Industries 12x20 inch lights with Leotek EV Series LEDs, a Safetran-branded Siemens gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.
After catching Paducah's monthly siren test, vtgrxrman and I hit the road back over to Hopkinsville to try and record at least one more crossing before heading back home to Huntsville. Thankfully, after a few hours of waiting and the sun was beginning to set, we were able to catch our fifth and final train of the day: a northbound empty CSX coal train with a CM44AC leading an AC44CW and an ES44AH for power. After this, I put gas in my car and we hit the road for Alabama for the evening.
This crossing is another great one, and definitely a good one to end off the day with. The signals here were installed by the L&N back in the late-70s/early-80s, it appears. In the 2000s, CSX replaced the bell here with the current Safetran Type 3 e-bell. Then, sometime between 2018 and 2019, CSX upgraded this crossing to LED. Finally, sometime between 2019 and when EthantheRailfanner documented this crossing in 2020, CSX replaced both of the original GRS Type D gate mechs here with the current Safetran-branded Siemens ones.
Thankfully, since then, nothing else has changed to this crossing. It's nice to see the old WCH cantilevers here are still in use, and that they still retain all of their MI 12x20 inch heads. With this video, I believe I've filmed all of the remaining cantilevers of this style on the CSX Henderson Subdivision as well! Also nice to record another older install on a CSX line with a Safetran Type 3 e-bell, it seems a bit rare to find older installs with Safetran Type 3s like this on CSX trackage. Hopefully these classic signals remain in service and unchanged for many more years to come, but, either way I'm glad I got to record this crossing in action when I did.
https://www.rxrsignals.com/Kentucky/A-K/Hopkinsville/9/