In 1900, the Oregon Short Line Railroad was organized. It proposed to build a railroad fromThe Dalles, on the Columbia River to Lakeview in the same state. From there it remained undecided as to a final destination in California. For reasons unknown the Oregon Short Line was “mothballed” for several years. Then, out of nowhere, the project was revived. In the fall of 1907, the Oregon Short Line sent thirty surveyors to examine the territory and locate routes from Alturas in a southwest direction to Vina, Tehama County, a distance of 179 miles. The survey crew also examined other routes, one being through the Susan River Canyon into the Honey Lake Valley, just as the Western Pacific had done.
On April 28, 1908, the Goose Lake & Southern Railway took over the Oregon. Short Line’s California route. It proposed a main line from Alturas to Anderson, Shasta County, a distance of 227 miles, and a branch line from Alturas to Vina, via western Lassen County and Deer Creek. In the fall of 1909, the Goose Lake & Southern announced the surveys were completed and that applications had been made for rights-of-way across government lands.
On February 28, 1913, the Goose Lake and Southern Pacific Railway granted the proposed line to their parent company the Central Pacific Railway. By this time, the Central Pacific had another subsidiary in operation, namely the Fernley & Lassen Railway. That line was already in the process of being constructed and the Goose Lake was abandoned.