N.J. Stat. § 48:3-23
Whenever any railroad, canal, turnpike, bridge or plank road of any corporation created by or under any law of this state, or by any concurrent, joint or consenting legislation of this state, and any other adjoining state, shall be or has been sold and conveyed, under and by virtue of any process or decree of any court of this state or the United States, or by any other lawful authority, the person or persons for or on whose account such railroad, canal, turnpike, bridge or plank road may be or has been purchased, and the person or persons in whom title in the same is vested by mesne conveyances and assignments by such purchasers or their vendees shall be and are hereby constituted a body politic and corporate, and are and shall be vested with all the right, title, interest, property, possession, claim and demand in law and equity, of, in and to such railroad, canal, turnpike, bridge or plank road with its appurtenances, with all the rights, powers, immunities, privileges and franchises of such corporation which may have been granted to or conferred thereupon by statute or statutes, in force at the time of such original sale and conveyance, and subject to all the restrictions imposed upon such corporation by any such act or acts, except so far as the same are modified hereby, but the provisions of this section and sections 48:3-24 and 48:3-25 of this title shall, notwithstanding anything herein contained to the contrary, extend and apply to any case in which such railroad, canal, turnpike, bridge or plank road of any such corporation has been sold and conveyed as aforesaid before April eleventh, one thousand eight hundred and eighty-seven.
N.J.S. § 48:3-23