One aspect of the Central Pacific is that it was not limited to the Sacramento to Ogden part of the railroad. Other parts of the "Southern Pacific" were constructed under the Central Pacific corporation, and not all of them were connected together. Thus it was not as easy as one might seem to split off the Central Pacific from the Southern Pacific.

I agree with Jeff Moore that the Union Pacific certainly was encouraging the Justice Department's effort in 1914. There was a time that the Central Pacific was in danger of going bankrupt and the Union Pacific was just waiting that to take place. Huntington's arrangement to have the Central Pacific leased to the Southern Pacific prevented that bankruptcy, and Union Pacific's hope to acquire the Central Pacific.

There were a lot of improvements to the Southern Pacific under Harriman's control, but I think the Southern Pacific did recover after all the legal action came to an end. In the years that followed, the Southern Pacific became very successful. It was not until the Santa Fe was able to acquire the Southern Pacific and keep most everything but the railroad that the Southern Pacific started to slide towards the Union Pacific takeover.