ART. 23] RAILROAD COMPANIES. 655

1888, art. 23, sec. 186. 1880, ch 292.

274. Nothing in this article shall apply to or authorize the
construction of any elevated railroad, or of any other railroad,
except a surface road; and no elevated railroad company shall
be incorporated except under a special charter of the general
assembly; and no elevated railroad shall be constructed in or
through the city of Baltimore, or in or through any of the
counties of the State, except under a special charter of the
general assembly.

Koch v. North Ave. Ry. Co., 75 Md. 223.

Ibid. sec. 187. 1886, ch. 134, sec. 1.

275. In case of the sale of any railroad situated wholly
within this State, or partly within this State and partly within
an adjoining State, or the District of Columbia, heretofore or
hereafter made by virtue of any mortgage or deed of trust,
whether under foreclosure or other judicial proceedings, or
pursuant to any power contained in said mortgage or deed of
trust, the purchaser or purchasers thereof, or his or their sur-
vivor or survivors, representatives or assigns, may, together
with their associates, if any, form a corporation for the purpose
of owning, possessing, maintaining and operating such rail-
road, or such portions thereof as may be situated within this
State, by filing in the office of the secretary of State a certificate
of the name and style of such corporation, the number of
directors of the same, the name of its first directors, the period
of their service not exceeding one year, the amount of the
capital stock of such corporation, and the number of shares
into which it is to be divided, and the par value thereof, which
may consist wholly of common stock, or partly of common
stock and partly of preferred stock, and the whole or any part
thereof may be issued as fully paid up stock in payment or part
payment for the road as purchased, and for the construction
and equipment thereof, and shall not in the aggregate exceed
the amount of stock which the corporation, whose road shall
have been purchased as aforesaid, was entitled to issue, and
the persons signing such certificate, and their successors, shall
be a body corporate and politic by the name specified in such
certificate, with power to sue and be sued, contract and be con-
tracted with, and to own, maintain, possess and operate the
railroad referred to in such certificate, and to transact all busi-
ness connected with the same; and a copy of such certificate,
attested by the secretary of State, shall, in all courts and places,