Northern Central Railway Co. v. Harrisburg & Mechanicsburg Electric Railway Co.

Citations

• 177 Pa. 142
• 35 A. 624
• 1896 Pa. LEXIS 957

Syllabus

<p>Street railways — On public highways only — Act of May 14, 1889.</p> <p>Under the act of May 14, 1889, P. 'L. 211, street railway companies, in the selection or adoption of the route either of their main line, or of any extension or advance thereof, are expressly confined to established streets or other avenues in cities and boroughs and to public highways in townships, subject to such further restrictions, even as to them, as are specified in the act. The legislature did not intend to give such companies a roving commission under which they might assert the right to locate, construct and operate street railroads wherever they pleased.</p> <p>Street railways — Highways—Railroads—Grossings—Act of May 14,1889.</p> <p>Under the act of May 14, 1889, a street railway company has no right to construct, maintain and operate its road across the lines of a steam railroad company without the consent and against the protest of the latter at a point where its roadway is not crossed by a public highway.</p> <p>Section 18 of the act of May 14, 1889, which gives authority to street railway companies to “cross at grade, diagonally, or transversely any railroad operated by steam or otherwise,” is only applicable to crossings at points where the railroad is crossed by street or highway on which the street railway is located.</p> <p>Railroads — Right of way — Equity—Grossings.</p> <p>While the interest which a railroad company , has in its right of way cannot be called a fee, it is a species of title that has some of the incidents of an estate in land, and is such an interest as may be subject to special injury, and gives the railroad company a standing in a court of equity to restrain a street railway from constructing its road across the railroad at a point other than the crossing of a highway.</p> <p>Railroads — Street railways — Overhead crossings — Equity.</p> <p>The construction by a street railway company of an overhead bridge one hundred feet or more in length, for the oper