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Steamerfan- You have a somewhat distorted understanding of the law of eminent domain. Without getting too technical, let me give you a bit of an explanation. Eminent domain is the power of the government (not the railroad) to take propertry for public purposes. In the United States, this power of the government is regulated by the 5th and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution which prohibit the taking of private property without just compensation and due process of law. Early railroads were chartered by States. Obtaining a charter could be a difficult and time consuming legal process. Once the charter was obtained, usually by act of the state legislature, it granted the railroad certain limited powers of eminent domain. For example in some states, land taken by railroads automatically reverted to the landowner if it ceased to be used for railroad purposes. Remember too that fair compensation has to be paid to the landowners, a fact that when coupled with construction costs often drove railroads into receivership or bankruptcy sometimes more than once before the first train even turned a wheel. Also, many railroads, especially in the west were formed by various state and federal land grants and easements. In these cases, the governement granted land already owned by the government to the railroads. Much of this land is not subject to nearly the restrictions placed upon the land obtained under charters as addressed above. Hope this explains the process a bit better. LC
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