Actually, the Pit River has been considered as a legitimate rail line as far back as the 1890's, as mentioned in several of the Southern Pacific books in my collection. It seems E.H. Harriman & the boys were worried about upstart Western Pacific using this route to connect with Jim Hill's Great Northern. Of course this linkup did indeed happen using Feather River Canyon instead.
Consider also, that in my opinion Coleman Randall is much easier to stomach than The Great NWP Debate. ( Oops, now I've done it ...)