Union Pacific said on Tuesday it would buy smaller rival Norfolk Southern in an $85 billion deal to create the first U.S. coast-to-coast freight rail operator and reshape the movement of goods from grains to autos across the country.

If approved, the deal would be the largest ever buyout in the sector and combine Union Pacific's stronghold in the western two-thirds of the U.S. with Norfolk's 19,500-mile (31,400-km) network that primarily spans 22 eastern states.

The two railroads are expected to have a combined enterprise value of $250 billion and would unlock about $2.75 billion in annualized synergies, the companies said.

Railroad operators since the robber baron days of the late 1800s Gilded Age have dreamed of linking the U.S. Atlantic and Pacific Coasts by rail, and President Donald Trump's administration may be conducive to such a mega deal.

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