CHAP. 223.—An ACT to incorporate the Atlantic, Staunton an
West Virginia railway compary.

Approved February 15, 1892.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia
That Henry Hutcheson, O. K. Lapham, P. H. Trout, T. D.
Ranson, Reeves Catt, E. C. Vincent and J. W. Bodley, and
their associates, successors and assigns, be, and they are
hereby, constituted and declared a body politic and cor-
porate by the name and style of the Atlantic, Staunton
and West Virginia railway company.

2. The capital stock of said company shall be fifty thou-
sand dollars, divided into shares of one hundred dollars
each, and said capital stock may from time to time be
increased by the board of directors to any amount not
exceeding fifteen million dollars.

3. It shall be lawful for any county, city, town, or indi-
vidual to subscribe to the capital stock of said railway
company, or any branch thereof, in the manner the law
prescribes.

4. The said Atlantic, Staunton and West Virginia rail-
way company is hereby authorized, empowered and per-
mitted to locate, construct, equip and operate a railroad
of standard gauge, with one or more tracks, having for
beginning any point it may select on the Potomac, York
river, or Chesapeake bay between the York and Potomac
rivers, thence running west by any route the directors
may select to Staunton, in Augusta county, Virginia;
thence west by any route they may select to the West Vir-
ginia state line.

5. Subject to the general railroad law of this state, it
shall be lawful for the said company to cross at grade,
over, or under any other railroad now constructed, or which
shall be hereafter constructed, within this state; to con-
struct lateral or branch roads not exceeding twenty miles
each in length, subject to the same limitations and restric-
tions as the main line, but, as to gauge, may be of such
gauge as to the company seems best. It may unite its
roads with any other roads in this state, or that may here-
ifter be built; may enter the grounds of such railroads,
vith the necessary sidings, switches, turnouts, conveniences
and facilities as will aid in the furtherance of the con-
struction of the said railway, or facilitate the exchange or
handling of passengers and freight between the said rail-
way and other railways in this state; but in all cases in
which the said railway company shall subject the real es-
tate of any other company to its uses, or acquire any of
the same, it shall be in the mode prescribed by law.

6. The said company shall have power to issue and sell
bonds at such times and on such terms as to the directors
may seem expedient, or to borrow money in such sums as
they may deem necessary to carry on its work; and in
order to secure the payment of its bonds or the repayment
of the money so borrowed, may create mortgages or deeds
of trust on its chartered rights, franchises, and property.
And the said company may receive as subscriptions to its
capital stock any real or personal property that may be
agreed on between the said company and the subscribers,
and may exchange its bonds for such property, and such
property may be chartered rights and franchises; and it
may hold, sell, improve, or convey, in such manner as to
the company may seem best, any real estate so acquired:
provided that it shall not hold real estate not needed for
the purpose of the corporation longer than a period of
thirty years from the date of the grant to it of said land.

7. Subject to the laws of this state, the said railroad
company may consolidate, lease, purchase, and acquire
the franchises, works, privileges, and property of any other
railroad company now existing in this state or hereafter
built, not a parallel or competing line, or it may consoli-
date with, lease, purchase, or acquire the franchises,
works, privileges, and property of any other railroad with-
out this state whose lines will thereby be made to connect
with or be operated in connection with the railway hereby
authorized to be built; and any railroad company hereto-
fore incorporated in this state, the line of which connects
with, or will connect with, the railway hereby incorpo-
rated and authorized tg be constructed, or which lies along
its route and could be utilized as a part of its lines, or in
lieu of such branch roads as this company may construct,
is hereby authorized to sell, to lease, or convey its works,
property, privileges, and franchises to the Atlantic, Staun-
ton and West Virginia railway company on such terms as
the stockholders of the respective corporations or the le-
gally constituted authorities of said respective corpora-
tions shall agree: provided, that in such consolidation,
sale, or any other manner, this corporation shall never
lose its identity or cease to be a domestic corporation,

enpiect to the jurisdiction of the courts and laws of this
state.
§. The incorporators named in this act shall constitute
the board of directors for the first year, and shall continue
in office until their successors shall be elected and quali-
fied. They shall have the power and authority of a pres-
ident and board of directors for the purpose of organization,
and for all other purposes incident thereto. They shall
elect one of their number president of the board, and may
appoint such officers as they deem proper. They shall fill
any vacancy that may occur in the board or in the office of
president, and may receive subscriptions to the capital
stock of the company. Whenever ten thousand dollars of
the capital stock shall have been subscribed the board of
directors shall proceed to organize the company by the
election of a president, a vice-president, secretary, treas-
urer, and such other officers and agents as may be required.
The said company shail be then considered legally organ-
ized, and shall have all the general powers conferred upon
corporations and chartered companies by the laws of this
state, and shall be subject to all the provisions thereof,
except in so far as the same are modified or are inconsis-
tent with this act.

9. The board of directors of this company is authorized
at any meeting when the majority of the directors are
present, if they deem it advisable, to change the name of
this company.

10. All taxes which may be assessed against said com-
pany shall be paid in lawful money of the United States,
and not in coupons. The construction of said road shall
be begun in two years from the first of April, eighteen
hundred and ninety-two, and completed in five years
thereafter.

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