The Southeastern Railway Museum in Duluth, GA, has been awarded a “Placemaking Grant” of $19,000 by the community organization Gwinnett Creativity Fund for the museum’s restoration of a former Southern Railway baggage car.
The museum said one goal of the restoration is to create a rental event space that would be unique to Gwinnett County. At present, the baggage car is in the museum’s shop, where volunteers are making repairs to the side sills before the car is painted.
Also included in the project are updates for the car’s electrical system, insulation, and heating and air-conditioning systems. The museum expects the restoration to be finished in early to mid-2027, when the baggage car will be available for meetings, birthday parties, family gatherings, classes and other activities. For more information about ongoing projects, visit the museum's website at train-museum.org.
Union Pacific, Norfolk Southern add merger provisions
Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern announced in late July that they have enhanced their merger application by offering customer protections that go beyond those provided in any prior rail merger, they said.
The new commitments were submitted with the supplemental information the Surface Transportation Board requested when it accepted the companies’ merger application as complete last May.
Union Pacific CEO Jim Vena said the provisions are intended to give customers “faster, more reliable and efficient coast-to-coast service from day one and create cost savings that will flow through to consumers.”
The commitments will have the effect of doubling the number of eligible shipments and extending certain benefits to bulk unit train shippers, thereby creating more opportunities for customers to benefit from the merger.
In the event that service performance declines during merger integration, customers will be able to obtain temporary access to alternative rail service—an additional safeguard to help keep freight moving if unexpected service problems arise.
Also included is customer access to a new rate relief process if the merger’s public benefits are not delivered in a timely fashion, the railroads said.
With this latest filing, Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern have completed their responses to the STB’s requests for supplemental information. The railroads said they expect the transaction to be completed in mid-2027, following STB review and approval.
Two of the nation’s biggest Class I railroads, Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern officially announced their merger plan July 29, 2025. They say the deal will create the first transcontinental railroad in the U.S. and give their customers access to a coast-to-coast network of more than 50,000 route miles across 43 states.
