(1) Subject to the approval thereof by the Arkansas Department of Transportation under such rules for procedure as it may establish and a determination that such action will be in the public interest, any railroad corporation in this state may sell or lease its road, property, and franchise to any other railroad corporation duly organized and existing under the laws of any other state or territory whose line of railroad shall so connect with the leased or purchased road by bridge, ferry, or otherwise as to practically form a continuous line of railroad.
(2) Any railroad corporation in this state may buy or lease or otherwise acquire any railroad with all the property, rights, privileges, and franchises thereto pertaining, or buy the stock and bonds, or guarantee the bonds of any railroad corporation incorporated or organized within or without this state whenever the roads of the companies form in the operation thereof a continuous line or lines.
(3) Before any such lease or sale is valid, it must be approved and ratified by persons holding or representing two-thirds (2/3) of the capital stock of each of the companies respectively, at a stockholders' meeting called for that purpose.