My ongoing coverage of my hometown railroad. Until the end of February the freight operation was run by the Northwestern Pacific Railroad, a private company (unrelated to the original SP-owned NWP, or the NWP "Railway" operated by a public agency).  NWP operated over tracks owned by Sonoma Marin Rail Transit (SMART).  On March 1 SMART took over direct management of the freight operations, although actual operation of trains was contracted to Summit Signal Inc. (SSI), who in turn hired many of the same NWP employees who had run the trains previously. SMART acquired the rights to the NWP name, but it is unclear how they will "brand" their freight operation, although the current tariffs appear to still use the NWP name.  So in a way a lot has changed but nothing has changed.  For the time being I am using the term "SMART Freight".  It is also unclear how much effort SMART will put into preserving and expanding the freight operation, or if they will let it wither and go away.