Maybe not actively smoking, but you've been inhaling the secondary! Though that *is* an interesting bit of speculation. Problem is, I think PE had the interurban market pretty much wrapped up by the time ATSF became a serious player in the area. OTOH, had it happened, might it have been a catalyst for, say, electrifying the line all the way to Barstow so electrics could have been used on Cajon? (Wasn't it Bill Clinton who claimed, "...but I didn't inhale!")