I always considered the failed merger to become SPSF the beginning of the end of the SP. I will never forgive them for pulling gyralights in favor of those electronic beacons, and I never cared for the Kodachrome clown colors.

But while they weren't allowed to merge the railroads, the holding companies themselves were combined casting the railroad out to fend for itself. Santa Fe Pacific Gold became a huge gold producer in the Carlin region using Central Pacific land grants inherited by SP and stolen by SPSF. Makes you wonder if Southern Pacific would have survived if SPSF hadn't gutted it or assimilation by the Borg was inevitable.