S.C. Code § 58-17-750
Except as prohibited in Section 58-17-770 and in sections 7 and 20 of article 9 of the Constitution of 1895, any railroad company created by and existing under the laws of this State may from time to time, purchase and hold the stocks or bonds of any other railroad company chartered by or of which the road is authorized to extend into this State. And except as prohibited in Section 58-17-770 and in sections 7 and 20 of article 9 of the Constitution of 1895, any railroad company may enter into a contract for the purchase, use or lease of any other railroad, upon such terms as may be agreed upon with the company owning it and may run, use and operate such road in accordance with such contract or lease; provided, the roads of the companies so contracting or leasing shall be directly, or by means of intervening railroads, connected with each other. Any railroad corporation organized under the laws of this State may guarantee the bonds, stocks or dividends of any other railroad corporation, whenever the roads of such corporations shall connect with each other or shall form a continuous line or railroad directly or by means of any connecting railroad or by steamboat or steamship line, such guaranty to be upon such terms and conditions as may be agreed upon by the stockholders of the corporations making it.
But all such agreements and all parts of them shall, at all times, be subject to amendment, alteration or repeal by the General Assembly.
S.C. Code § 58-17-750
Sections 7 and 20 of article 9 of the Constitution of 1895, referred to in this Code section, no longer appear in the Constitution following the revision and rewriting of that article by amendment ratified by 1971 Act No. 64 (1971 (57) 47). Prior to the amendment the sections read as follows:
"Section 7. Consolidation, etc., with competing line; jury may decide whether lines are parallel or competing. - No railroad, or other transportation company, and no telegraph or other transmitting corporation, or the lessees, purchasers or managers of any such corporation, shall consolidate the stock, property or franchises of such corporation with, or lease or purchase the works or franchises of, or in any way control, any other railroad or other transportation, telegraph or other transmitting company owning or having under its control a parallel or competing line; and the question whether railroads or other transportation, telegraph or other transmitting companies are parallel or competing lines shall, when demanded by the party complainant, be decided by a jury as in other civil causes."
"Section 20. Right of way. - No right of way shall be appropriated to the use of any corporation until full compensation therefor shall be first made to the owner or secured by a deposit of money, irrespective of any benefit from any improvement proposed by such corporation, which compensation shall be ascertained by a jury of twelve men, in a court of record, as shall be prescribed by law."