Louisville, KY: CGB Grain Elevator and Lafarge Cement

Grain Elevator: (Satellite)

Lafarge Cement: (Satellite)

The grain elevator has been on the west side of the PAL/IC Oak Street Yard for a long time. Lafarge Cement is a relatively recent facility.

J.B. Rail Photog added
03/18/2022 - A pair of Paducah and Louisville Railway GP38-2s 1998 and 2131 being used by a yard crew to shuffle around cars at their yard in Louisville, KY.
Dennis DeBruler

Thanks for including interesting things in the background such as grain elevators, bridges, coal mines, etc. I was not aware that Louisville had this big elevator until I saw this photo.

https://www.google.com/.../data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4...

Jim Pearson Photography posted
Newly painted and refurbished Canadian Pacific 5798 sits tied down in the Paducah and Louisville Railway Yard in Louisville, Kentucky on April 15th, 2023. The markings under the cab window are SD40-2 DRF-30. Not sure where it was rebuilt and what was done to it however, with the recent merger between the CP and KCS, the road name on this newly painted unit is now incorrect!
Tech Info: DJI Mavic 3 Classic Drone, RAW, 24mm, f/2.8, 1/3200 sec, ISO 280.
Dennis DeBruler: The grain elevator is what caught my eye.

While confirming that Lafarge turned quite a bit of the railyard into their distribution center, I noticed that Vg Read & Sons has built on what appeared to be a residential area because of the churches and Zane Street on this map. As I have discussed in the railyard notes, the curve in the parking lot reflects the location of the old roundhouse.

1955 Louisville West Quad @ 1:24,000

It appears that all of the churches east of the railyard are gone, but those west of the yard are still intact.

Satellite

The latest topo map that is available still shows all of the churches. 

1998 Louisville West Quad @ 1:24,000

1998 is recent enough that I can use Global Earth to research the changes. Sure enough, the three city blocks between 12th Street and the railyard used to be residential. As expected, the roundhouse is gone, but the land has yet to be repurposed as a parking lot. They have removed tracks in an attempt to run an intermodal yard. 

Global Earth, Mar 1992

By the next available image, those three blocks had been leveled and "renewed" as an industrial area. It looks like they gave up on the intermodal yard and were able to sell at least some of that land to Lafarge.

Global Earth, Apr 1998

J.B. Rail Photog posted
02/16/2024 - A Paducah & Louisville Railway, Inc. yard job shuffles cars around in their yard in Louisville, KY.  From this crossing you can always catch them in the mornings and throughout the day working.
Dennis DeBruler: And you get a nice view of the grain elevator.

J.B. Rail Photog posted
A roster shot of Paducah & Louisville Railway, Inc. SD70M 4127 in Louisville, KY.  This is a former Union Pacific SD70M which is very obvious to see.

J.B. Rail Photog posted
Shots of the 4 KCS GP38s in the Paducah & Louisville Railway, Inc. yard in Louisville, KY, being there to be taken to Mayfield, KY, for Progress Rail to rebuild them is my assumption.