Chap. 190.—An ACT to define and set forth the Corporate Rights,
Franchises, Privileges and Obligations of the Potomac, Fredericks-
burg and Piedmont Railrgad Company, and to giant Additional
Franchises to said Company.

Approved March 27, 1876.

Whereas the general assembly of Virginia, by acts passed
March first, eighteen hundred and fifty-three; March fifth,
eighteen hundred and fifty-six; January tenth, eighteen
hundred and sixty-six; February seventh, eighteen hundred
and sixty-six, and February sixth, eighteen hundred and
sixty-seven, did incorporate the Fredericksburg and Gordons-
ville railroad company, and did grant to said company all
the rights, franchises and privileges, and subject it to all the
duties and liabilities provided and declared in the provisions
of the Code of Virginia (edition eighteen hundred and sixty),
which prescribe general regulations for the incorporation of
railroad companies, and did authorize and empower said
company to construct a railroad from the town of Fred-
ericksburg to a point on the Central railroad at or near
Gordonsville, or to a point on the Orange and Alexandria
railroad at or near Orange courthouse; and, after the state
had paid Jarge sums of money as a stockholder in said com-
pany, did authorize the company to sell said stock of the
state to any person who would complete said road upon the
same terms for which a majority in interest of the private
stockholders would agree to sell their's, and did empower
said company to extend said railroad from Orange court-
house to the town of Charlottesville, and to increase its
capital stock in the sum of one million dollars over and above
the amount of four hundred and sixty thousand dollars first
authorized, and to borrow money not exceeding one million
dollars, and issue bonds for same secured by a lien upon
the property of said company; and whereas, after said com-
pany had expended a large amount of money in constructing
said road, certain persons did contract with it to complete
the same to Orange courthouse within a limited time; and
said contractors claiming that, by virtue of said contract,
they owned all the stock of the company, did undertake to
mortgage the road and property of the company to the ex-
tent of one million dollars, and to issue bonds in the name of
said company therefor; and said contractors, after complet-
ing seventeen and one-half miles of said road, did wholly
abandon their said contract, and thereupon certain holders
of said mortgage bonds did undertake to foreclose said mort-
gage by asale of said road and property, made December
twenty-eighth, eighteen hundred and seventy-two; and
whereas the persons who claimed to have purchased said
road and property at said sale, did apply to the general
assembly for certain legislation in their behalf, and the gene-
‘ral assembly did enact the two several acts approved respec-
tively February twenty-first, eighteen hundred and seventy-
two, and March twenty-sixth, eighteen hundred and seventy-
three, whereby said persons were recognized as purchasers
of, and successors to, all the property, rights and franchises
of said railroad company, and were empowered under the
corporate name of the Fredericksburg, Orange and Char-
lottesville railroad company, to complete said road to Orange
courthouse within a specified time, and to extend same to
Charlottesville, and fur that purpose to borrow one million
dollars, and issue bonds therefor, and sell same for less than
par, and secure same by a lien on the property of said com-
pany; and said company was required to pay certain. debts
due to citizens in Virginia for labor and materials furnished
to said roads as specified in said acts; but all the aforestated
corporate rights and franchises, including said authority and
power to create said lien upon said road and property, were
made, in the express terms of said acts, dependent upon and
subject to the following condition and contingency, namely:
that in case the said company should fail to complete said
railroad to Orange courthouse on or before the first day of
July, eighteen hundred and seventy-three, then and in that
event the said company should forfeit the said railroad and
all its property and franchises (free and clear of all liens or
obligations of said company) unto the state of Virginia, as a
trustee, who should hold the same for the use and benefit of
the aforesaid original stockholders of the Fredericksburg and
Gordonsville railroad company; and the board of public
works of Virginia were directed, in case of the happening of
said forfeiture by reason of such failure to complete said rail-
road, to take possession thereof, and all the property of said
company, and deliver the same over to the Fredericksburg
and Gordonsville railroad company, which company, by the

rovisions of the same acts of the general assembly, was to

e re-organized and re-invested with all its original rights
and franchises, and clothed with all the additional franchises
and privileges granted to said Fredericksburg, Orange and
Charlottesville railroad company. And the aforesaid terms
and conditions prescribed in said acts were duly accepted by
the latter company, in the mode therein stipulated; and
whereas the said Fredericksburg, Orange and Charlottes-
ville railroad company did, after its said acceptance of said
terms and ®onditions of said acts, execute a mortgage upon
said railroad and issue cemtain bonds thereunder, and did
wholly fail and neglect to complete said railroad to Orange
courthouse within said time, or to do any valuable work
towards such completion, and thereupon, in November, eigh-
teen hundred and seventy-three, the said board of public
works did enforce said forfeiture, and did take possession of
said railroad and other property, and deliver the same to the
Fredericksburg and Gordonsville railroad company, which
company had then, in pursuance of said provisions of law,
been duly re-organized and invested with all the aforesaid
corporate rights, franchises and privileges needful for hold-
ing, completing and operating said road; and whereas said
company hath, since that time, continued to hold said road,
and the supreme court of appeals of Virginia hath affirmed
and sustained the right of said company to hold and main-
tain the same, free, and discharged from all claims of holders
of said bonds issued by the said Fredericksburg, Orange and
Char‘ottesville railroad company; and whereas, by an act of
the general assembly, approved , eighteen hundred
and ,.seventy-six, the name of the Fredericksburg and Gor-
donsville railroad company hath been changed, so that said
company shall henceforward be styled and known as the
Potomac, Fredericksburg and Piedmont railroad company,
and it is expedient and proper that the corporate powers,
rights, franchises and privileges of said compary, so derived
and obtained, as well as its duties and obligations, should be
defined and set forth in one act of the general assembly:
therefore, .

1. The general assembly of Virginia doth enact and de
clare, That the said Potomac, Fredericksburg and Piedmont
railroad company, has the corporate powers, rights, franchises
and privileges, and is subject to the duties and-obligations, as
hereinafter stated. The said company has all the corporate
powers, rights, franchises and privileges, and is subject to alk
the duties and obligations, created and provided by those
provisions of the Code of Virginia (edition eighteen hundred
and seventy-three), which prescribe general regulations for
the government of railroad companies organized and operat-
ing under the laws of Virginia.

2. The said company owns the existing railroad track,
road-bed, iron, and other superstructures, bridges, culverts,
tanks, and other fixtures, and all.other work, materials and
property, together with the rights of way lying and being
upon, or appurtenant to, the existing route for a railroad from
Fredericksburg to Orange courthouse, as surveyed and laid
out by the said Fredericksburg and Gordonsville railroad
company.

3. The said company has the franchise and right to com-
plete the said railroad to Orange courthouse, and to extend
the same to Charlottesville, and to connect with the Chesa-
peake and Ohio railroad, at a point at or near Gordonsville,

y a branch road.

4. The said company is bound to provide for #nd pay the
following debts, as required andgprescribed by the aforemen-
tioned acts et the general assembly, namely: the debts due
to citizens of Virginia, on actual construction done and ma-
terials furnished for said railroad, which have been audited
and ascertained as prescribed by the provisions of the act
aforesaid (approved February twenty-first, eighteen hundred
and seventy-two), and which amount to about the sum of
thirty thousand dollars; and also all other debts which may
be due to citizens of Virginia for like construction, by con-
tractors or sub-contractors for work done, and supplies and
materials furnished them for said railroad, since said twenty-

first of February, eighteen hundred and seventy-two. The
payment of these debts shall be secured by said company by
the execution of its bonds for the same, secured in a first lien
upon said railroad and other property of said company, paya-
ble at a reasonable time, to be determined by the board of
directors, not exgeeding thirty years, the interest payable
semi-annually. And in order to enable said company to pro-
vide for the payment of said debts, and also to procure the
means for the completion of the road to Orange courthouse,
and the extension of the same to Charlottesville, the’said
company are authorized and empowered to borrow a sum of
money not exceeding twelve hundred thousand dollars, and
upon a rate of interest not exceeding eight per centum per
annum; and to secure the money so borrowed, the company
is authorized to issue coupon or registered bonds in such
sams as the directors of said company may deem best; and
to secure the payment of the same, and of the interest ac-
cruing thereon, the president and directors are authorized
and empowered to execute a lien upon il the property, rights,
and franchises of said company, existing at the time of the
execution of such lien, and which may thereafter be acquired
by said company; and said company may sell said bonds at
less than par; but not more than five hundred thousand dol-
lars of said bonds shall be issued by said company until said
railroad shall have been completed to Orange courthouse,
and be equipped for travel and freight transportation thereon.
_ §. The said company hassthe franchise and right, after it
it shall have completed said railroad tg Orange courthouse,
to construct a branch railroad from an¥ point on its line east
of Orange courthouse to Culpeper, the county seat of Cul-
peper county: and further, to extend its railroad from the
town of Fredericksburg to the Potomac river, at or near
Mathias’ point, and in order thereto, to erect a railroad
bridge over the Rappahannock at a point above the existing
bridge of the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac rail-
road company; and also to acquire and hold, by purchase or
lease, or by condemnation, in the mode provided by law in
such cases, such lands on the Potomac river as said company
may deem necessary for wharves and yards for the delivery
and storage of coal and other article: of freight and com-
merce; and in order to provide the means for constructing
said branch railroad, and said extension to the Potomace, said
company may borrow a furtber sum of money, not exceeding
twenty-five thousand dollars per mile of the lines of such
branch and extension roads, and issue its bonds therefor at
like rate of interest, and secure the same and dispose thereof
as is hereinbefore provided in reference to the loan herein-
above authorized.

6. The said company has. the authority and right to sell
the stock of the state of Virginia in said company, on such
terms as a majority in interest of the private stockholders
may agree to sell their stock therein, upon the condition that
the state is released from the deferred part of her subscrip-
tion to said railroad now unpaid.

7. The said company has the right and privilege to increase
its capital stock, over and beyond the amount already sub-
scribed for and held, up to an amount not exceeding fourteen
hundred and sixty thousand dollars. :

8. The said company has the right, when and after it shall
have completed said road to Orange courthouse, by and with
the consent of the holders of the mortgage bonds which it
may theretofore have issued, to accept a surrender of the
same, and to cancel them and the mortgage created to secure
them, and may thereupon execute a new mortgage, which
shall be a first lien on all the property, works, and franchises
of the company then existing or thereafter acquired by the
company; and may issue bonds thereunder, bearing a rate of
interest not exceeding eight per centum per annum, and for
an amount not exceeding twenty-five thousand dollars per
mile of track constructed or authorized to be constructed,
and may sell said bofids at less than par; and may agree
with the holders of the aforementioned mortgage bonds as
to the terms of such surrender and cancellation. .

9. The said company has the right to construct and operate
a telegraph line along the route of its said road.

10. And the general assembly doth further enact, That the
limitations .as to time upon the charter of said company (im-
posed by the aforerecited acts upon the charters of the afore-
mentioned companies) shall be and the same are hereby
removed: provided, spat the said company shall complete
said railroad to Orahe courthouse within five years from
the date of this act. And the said company, when it shall
have so completed said road, may lease the same to any rail-
road company with whose road the road of said company
may connect.

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