If you have ever driven down through the Central Valley of California on Interstate 5 or on Highway 99 to where the two great highways meet at the notorious Grapevine, that old-time nemisis of travelers, at any season of the year you will have been awed beauty of the hulking mountains that seem designed to block passage. Once upon a time it took several days to climb up over those mountains from the vast central valley to drop into the enigma that is now known as Los Angeles. Tejon Pass was almost as forbidding as the Grapevine.  On this day the automobile traffic hardly slowed to the legal speed up the Grapevine and through the pass... and someday people will be able to ride a high-speed train from San Francisco to Los Angeles in little more time that it now takes to fly the route.