Chap. 381.—An ACT to incorporate the Powell’s Valley railroad
company.
Approved March 3, 1886.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
James E. Yates, J. S. B. Thompson, Richard McCoy, M. L.
Walton, H. H. Downing, M. C. Richardson, F. H. Stith,
Basil B. Gordon, S. S. Turner and such other persons as may
be associated with them, and accept the provisions of this act
be and they are hereby incorporated and made a body politic
and corporate, under the name and style of the Powell’s Valley
railroad company, and by.that name shall be known in law,
and shall have perpetual succession, and shall have, enjoy and
exercise all the rights, powers and privileges pertaining to cor-
porate bodies, and necessary for the purposes of this act, and
locate, construct, operate and maintain a railroad, of standard
guage or narrow guage, as said company may choose to adopt ;
to commence at some point on the Manassas division of the
Virginia Midland railroad, between Riverton, in Warren
county and Strasburg, in Shenandoah county, thence through
the Powell’s Port valley and Massanutton mountains, by the
most practicable route, to some point on the Valley branch of the
Baltimore and Ohio railroad, between the town of Edinburgh,
in Shenandoah county and Harrisonburg, in Rockingham
county.

2. The capital stock of said company shall be not less than
two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, nor more than three
millions of dollars, to be divided into shares of fifty dollars each.

3. The persons named in this act, or such of them as may
accept its provisions and participate in the organization of the
company, shall constitute the first board of directors of said
company, and shall continue in office until the first meeting of
the stockholders thereof. At such first meeting, and at every
annual meeting, so many directors and such officers shall be
elected as may be hereafter prescribed by the by-laws and reg-
ulations of said company.

4. Subscriptions to the capital stock of said company may
be made by persons or corporations in money, credit, labor,
machinery or land : provided, that said company shall not own
land in any county unless the said road or any of its branches
pass into or through the same, and shall not hold at one time,
in any such county, more than twenty thousand acres.

5. The said company may have power to acquire, own, oper-
ate or lease any quarries, mines, coal or manganese beds,
lumber yards or furnaces, in any of the counties through
which its road may pass or in any adjoining county ; and to
build branch roads not exceeding twenty miles in length ezch,
to any quarries, lumber yards, mines, coal or manganese beds
or furnaces so owned, acquired, operated or leased.

6. Said company may merge and consolidate with, lease or
be leased by any connecting railroad or line of railroad, or
any part thereof in this State: provided, however, that no
such merger, consolidation or lease shall be entered into, take
effect or prevail until it is so authorized, and the terms thereof
determined by a vote of the holders of at least two-thirds of the
capital stock of said company hereby incorporated and de-
clared ; and provided further, that should this company ever
consolidate with a foreign corporation, according to the pro-
visions of this section, the consolidated company shall always
remain a Virginia corporation in regard to the right of sueing
and being sued. :

7. Said company shall have the power to borrow money to
such an amount as it may deem proper, and to issue for any
loans, debentures, or bonds of the company, bearing interest
at such rate per annum, not to exceed six per centum, as the
company may determine, registered or coupon. Said deben-
tures or bonds may be expressed in dollars or pounds sterling;
and to secure the payment of such loan or loans, principal and
interest, said company may execute one or more mortgages or
deeds of trust on the whole or any part of its property, real,
personal and mixed, its charter-rights, franchises and income,
and to record the same in any county in the state of Virginia,
through which its road may be located; and the tax for record-
ing such obligations shall be assessed and paid upon the amount
of bonds or other obligations secured thereby, actually sold or
hypothecated during the year ending on the first day of Feb-
ruary of each year, and no other tax shall be demanded upon
such deed of trust or mortgage.

8. The said company shall have the power.to cross at grade,
over or under, intersect, join or unite its railroad with any other
railroad now built or constructed, or hereafter to be built and
constructed, within this state, at any point on its route, and
upon the grounds of such railroad company, with the necessary
turn-outs, side-ways and switches, and other conveniences, in
furtherance of the object of its connection.

g. The said company shall be required to commence the con-
struction of said road within two years from the passage of this
act, and to complete eight miles of the same within ten years
thereafter, otherwise the powers, privileges and franchises
hereby granted shall be ipso facto void. |

10. All debts, dues and demands to the state of Virginia,
from said company, shall be paid in current money; and this
act shall be subject to repeal, amendment or modification at the
pleasure of the general assembly.

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