Any company incorporated under the laws of this state, or constructing or operating a railway in this state, in addition to other rights conferred, shall have power:
1. To enter, by its servants, upon the real property of any person, for the purpose of selecting an advantageous route for its main line or any branch thereof, or for the purpose of relocating its line, subject to responsibility for all damages resulting therefrom.
2. To acquire by purchase, donation or otherwise, all such real and personal property as may be necessary for, or may be given to aid or encourage the construction and maintenance of its railroad and for its buildings and yards.
3. To condemn, in the manner provided by law, a right-of-way with such additional lands as may be necessary for depot grounds or for the purpose of constructing necessary embankments, excavations, ditches, drains and culverts.
4. To cross natural or artificial streams or bodies of water, streets, highways or railroads which its road may intersect, and in such manner as to afford security for life and property and subject to the duty of immediately restoring such course or body of water, street, highway, or railway to its former condition, as nearly as may be.
5. To cross, intersect, join or unite its railroad with any other railroad, either before or after the construction, at any point upon its route, and upon the grounds of such other railroad corporation, with the necessary turnouts, sidings and switches, and other conveniences in furtherance of the objects of its connections, and every corporation whose railroad is or shall be hereafter intersected by any new railroad, shall unite with the owners of such new railroad in forming such intersections and connections, and grant facilities therefor.
6. To construct and operate spurs or branch lines of railroad connecting with the main line or any branch thereof, not to exceed 5 miles in length each, though such spurs or branch lines be not named or described in the articles of incorporation, and to relocate any section or sections of its lines between the principal termini, with the same powers as in the case of original or first locations.
[1911 CPA § 685; RL § 5627; NCL § 9174]