The finishing touches on Mike Bensen’s new Southern Rail are not that far away, now that the steel frame connecting the two railroad cars is in place. If you’ve traveled through downtown Carrboro recently, you might have seen the frame lowering trusses into place. The structure will bridge the two railroad cars.

Bensen, a Chapel Hill native who own St. Ex in Washington D.C., says he’s not that far from opening. Interior work on the cars proceeds as well.
Inside the westernmost coach, there’s a new mural of a diver and a giant squid next to the words, “Scenic University Lake sustainable food source.” At the rear of the car, there’s still an old mural from the cars’ past, a mural for the Carrboro Cosmos soccer team.