No company or corporation operating a common-carrier railroad shall be given or hold a permit or lease under the provisions of this chapter for any coal deposits except for its own use for railroad purposes; and such limitations of use shall be expressed in all permits and leases issued to such companies or corporations; and no such company or corporation shall receive or hold under permit or lease more than ten thousand two hundred and forty acres in the aggregate nor more than one permit or lease for each two hundred miles of its railroad lines served or to be served from such coal deposits exclusive of spurs or switches and exclusive of branch lines built to connect the leased coal with the railroad, and also exclusive of parts of the railroad operated mainly by power produced otherwise than by steam.
Nothing in this section and section 201 of this title shall preclude such a railroad of less than two hundred miles in length from securing one permit or lease thereunder but no railroad shall hold a permit or lease for lands in any State in which it does not operate main or branch lines.
(Feb. 25, 1920, ch. 85, §2(c),
Section is comprised of subsec. (c) of section 2 of act Feb. 25, 1920, as amended by section 1 of act June 3, 1948. Subsecs. (a) and (b) of section 2 of act Feb. 25, 1920, are classified to section 201 of this title. Subsec. (d) of said section 2, as added by
1948-Act June 3, 1948, reenacted this section without change except to make it subsec. (c) of section 2 of act Feb. 25, 1920.
1944-Act June 13, 1944, inserted "more than ten thousand two hundred and forty acres in the aggregate nor" before "more than one permit", substituted "railroad lines served or to be served from such coal deposits" for "railroad line within the State in which such property is situated,", and prohibited a railroad from holding a permit or lease for lands in any State in which it did not operate main or branch lines.