diff --git a/railties/CHANGELOG b/railties/CHANGELOG
index e839464ee4a8f799a55915cf7a9b1ad9c430fc3c..f6dfa85fb3b6d6bb33f2c10e664b2b15cc54c458 100644
--- a/railties/CHANGELOG
+++ b/railties/CHANGELOG
@@ -1,4 +1,7 @@
 *SVN*
+
+* Add plugin library directories to the load path after the lib directory so that libraries in the lib directory get precedence. #2910. [james.adam@gmail.com]
+
 * Make help for the console command more explicit about how to specify the desired environment in which to run the console. #2911. [anonymous]
 
 * PostgreSQL: the purge_test_database Rake task shouldn't explicitly specify the template0 template when creating a fresh test database.  #2964 [dreamer3@gmail.com]
diff --git a/railties/lib/initializer.rb b/railties/lib/initializer.rb
index 81578e484e90dbca85e40afd855e07f6fa0ca993..6287f0ddc1d50de8548c98c34a4efcad4e230365 100644
--- a/railties/lib/initializer.rb
+++ b/railties/lib/initializer.rb
@@ -299,9 +299,13 @@ def load_plugin(directory)
         has_lib   = File.directory?(lib_path)
         has_init  = File.file?(init_path)
 
-        # Add lib to load path.
-        $LOAD_PATH.unshift(lib_path) if has_lib
-        
+        # Add lib to load path *after* the application lib, to allow
+        # application libraries to override plugin libraries.
+        if has_lib
+          application_lib_index = $LOAD_PATH.index(File.join(RAILS_ROOT, "lib")) || 0  
+          $LOAD_PATH.insert(application_lib_index + 1, lib_path)
+        end
+
         # Allow plugins to reference the current configuration object
         config = configuration