An analysis of the activities of salaried executives can shed new light on the history of American railroad management in the late 19th century. Our study focuses on the general superintendents who supervised the operations of railroad companies, and more specifically on the general superintendent of the Central Pacific Railroad. The decisions that he made or implemented were not shaped by a stable and coherent management system, but rather by the coexistence between various and often competing priorities. Thus the general superintendent’s oversight of operating expenditures essentially aimed at alleviating the effects of fluctuations in earnings, and rate-making remained independent of the evaluation of costs. For new rolling stock and equipment, the superintendent and his employers relied on competition between suppliers or on special agreements with various business partners and customers. Such strategies ran counter to the demands of the engineers and employees of the department of motive power and machinery, who advocated greater standardization. Management choices thus limited both incentives and capacity to boost labor productivity. Far from pioneering the management practices of twentieth-century industrial firms, railroad executives continued to take into account the business principles of mercantile firms, which still provided viable responses to the constraints and opportunities of their environment.