§ 147. Powers of corporations organized to acquire and operate railroads partly in the state. A railroad corporation created under the laws of the state or states in which the greater part of the line of its railroad may be situated, or a railroad corporation heretofore or hereafter created under this chapter or other statutes of this state, for the purpose of taking title to, and operating, the line of road as so sold, under a judgment or decree of a court of this state, or of a court of the United States sitting in this state, for the foreclosure of a mortgage, with its franchises and appurtenances, may hold, possess and operate not only those parts of the railroad lying in other states, but also that part of the line of such railroad lying in this state, and shall be subject to the duties and liabilities to which such corporation was, by the laws of this state, subject, and to such further or other duties and liabilities as are now or may hereafter be imposed by law upon railroad corporations of this state, and to the provisions of any other statute of this state concerning the reorganization of corporations. An exemplified copy of the certificate or certificates of incorporation, under and by virtue of which any such corporation is created in any other state, and a certified copy of the judgment or decree of any court sitting in any other state, under which said railroad shall have been sold, and a certified copy of the order or judgment or decree of confirmation and approval required by the preceding section, or of the order, judgment or decree of the court of this state, or of the United States in this state, which decreed the sale, confirming the same, shall be filed in the office of the department of state for this state, and in the office of the county clerk of the county where its principal business office in this state is or shall be located.

This section and the preceding one shall apply in respect of decrees, foreclosures, sales, confirmations, reorganizations and incorporations, whether heretofore or hereafter made, provided, however, that nothing in either of said sections shall affect any action or proceeding pending in any court, on or before the first day of April, eighteen hundred and ninety-six, to establish the invalidity of any foreclosure or reorganization theretofore had, or to enforce any judgment or claim arising before such foreclosure or reorganization.