Per John Signor's book Tehachapi, the original Santa Fe proposal grew out of the oil boom in the Kern River oil fields in the early 1900's, and their frustration at Espee's treatment of Santa Fe oil trains as second class over Tehachapi. Santa Fe actually surveyed several routes between Bakersfield & Los Angeles, including one roughly paralleling U.S. Highway 99. This route would have required several long tunnels, including one between Gorman & Lebec which Santa Fe actually bought property for. Another long tunnel was planned under Violin Summit & Whitaker Summit ( the ridgeline around present day Templin Hwy. ), to access Piru Gorge from the South. The Friendly threatened to terminate their trackage rights agreement with Santa Fe the moment construction began on the proposed Grapevine / Ridge Route line. Santa Fe would instead build a pipeline. Note that the proposed Santa Fe line would have been inundated by the California Water Project's Pyramid Lake development, which did cause Highway 99 to be re - routed closer to the original Ridge Route and re - built as today's Interstate 5. One of the proposed routes also would have ended up under present - day Lake Hughes.