Chap. 857.—An ACT to amend the charter of the Roanoke mineral belt line
railroad company, acts of 1893-’94, chapter 189.

Approved March 5, 1896.

1. Be itenacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That sections
two and eight of chapter one hundred and eighty-nine of the acta of
eighteen hundred and ninety-three and ninety-four be amended and
re-enacted so as to read as follows:

§ 2. The said company is authorized and empowered to locate, con-
struct, build, equip, maintain and operate a railroad and telegraph
line from a point within the city of Roanoke, Virginia, in a south-
erly direction, passing through the counties of Roanoke, Bedford,
Franklin and Pittsylvania, extending to the Richmond and Danville
railroad at a point between Rocky Mount and Franklin junction, to
be selected by said company, with the privilege to said company of
continuing its line across said Richmond and Danville railroad
through Pittsylvania county to the city of Danville, Virginia, and
on to the state line of North Carolina; and from a point within the
city of Roanoke, Virginia, in a northerly direction, passing through
the counties of Roanoke, Craig and Alleghany, to the state line of
West Virginia, along such route as may be selected by said company,
with such number of tracks as it may deem necessary and of stap-
dard gauge; and for that purpose it shall have the right to acquire
a continuous strip of land one hundred feet in width upon which to
construct its road, with such additional land for depots, station-
houses, water-tanks, freight yards, repair or machine shops as it may
desire, not to exceed forty acres in any one parcel. In order to se-
cure a continuous line of railroad from Roanoke to said point on
the Richmond and Danville railroad, and thence to Danville and to
the state line of North Carolina, and from Roanoke to the state line
of West Virginia, to be operated under one management, the said
Roanoke mineral! belt line railroad company may acquire by purchase
the rights, powers, privileges, franchises and properties of other
chartered railroad companies, or which may hereafter be char-
tered by this state, by exchanging its stock and other securities
for the stock and securities of said other companies, or it may
merge and consolidate with any of said railroad companies. The
rights, powers, privileges, franchises and properties hereby con-
ferred upon or which may be hereafter acquired by the Roa-
noke mineral belt line railroad company, on such terms as may
be agreed upon between the contracting parties, acting through their
respective boards of directors, subject, however, to the approval of the
majority of the stockholders of each company; and the said railroad,
or its successor, may adopt another name for the company which
may be formed by the consolidation of the rights, powers, privileges,
franchises, and properties of the said company, or any of then,
plenary power and authority being hereby given to such other com-
pany or companies to make and carry out the consolidation and
merger; provided that the consolidated company shall be liable for
11 debts and liabilities of each and every of the said companies,
-nd that all the rights, powers, privileges, and franchises which each
pnd every of the said railroad companies are possessed of at the date
ȣ consolidation shall be, and are hereby, conferred upon and granted
o the said consolidated company to the same extent as if each and
yvery of said powers, rights, privileges, and franchises were herein
‘ecited ; and provided, further, that should the said company or its
successor ever consolidate its rights, powers, privileges, franchises,
»Y properties with those of a foreign corporation, the consolidated
>Ompany shall always remain a Virginia corporation in the opera-
Lion and management of its properties in this state and as to the
rights of suing and being sued.

§ 8. Said railroad company or its successors shall begin the con-
struction of its railroad within two years after the first day of July,
sighteen hundred and ninety-six, and complete the main line of the
same within five years from the first day of July, eighteen hundred
ninety-six.

2. This act shall be in force from its passage.