Leyte Gulf Refought

Interesting, thanks. So there was some sort of interim installation - the stub of the cage mainmast was removed and the solid tower installed sometime before April 1944, with something atop it - any idea what? - and then the Mark 34 was installed in the Sept-October refit. The aft radar in the April shot looks similar to the one on the foretop, which is presumably a Mark 3. That might also explain the reference to an aft director on Maryland in the navweaps paper.

 

It looks to be a Mark 3, the Navweaps paper that you refer to also mentions this.

Some large photos can be found on navsource.
http://navsource.org/archives/01/046/014674.jpg
http://navsource.org/archives/01/046/014619.jpg
http://www.navsource.org/archives/01/014662.jpg

 

Found it, in Friedman's battleship book, first place I should have looked: "The new stump tower had provision for the cupola director (Mark 11) formerly mounted in the maintop, and it was expected that ultimately it would be replaced by a modern Mark 34 surmounted by a Mark 8 radar. The Colorado was so fitted during a Puget Sound overhaul, between 21 August and 9 October 1944."