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The railroads were built as a free enterprise system and

...and were all subsidized with government land grants for the right-of-way.

As for your quote "We the People are NOT a bunch of serfs living under a feudal aristocracy who must pay tolls to the landed gentry." The railway companies built the lines, the railroad companies operate the lines, if you want to use the transportation system that they built and maintained you should be prepared to pay the price they demand.

What's so difficult about understanding the difference between "We the People" and "We the Stockholders"???

When push comes to shove, it is We the People who are sovereign.

Railroads and other corporations are not people, and their so-called "rights" are inferior to the rights of We the People. Along with rights go responsibilities. And corporate shareholders gave up their collective individual property rights when they incorporated, in exhange for the privilege of limited personal liability.

Keep that in mind, Gonzo... We the People are sovereign, not Wall St.

and were all subsidized with government land grants for the right-of-way

Land grants were given in exchange for hauling government cargo at reduced rates. The cost of those grants was paid back many times over with the enormous saving reaped by the government during WW I and WW II. That was a business deal, you appear to be reading the progressive turn of the century histories at face value.

Also it is important to remember the perception of that land in the 1860s was quite poor. With the exception of land near Omaha, Sacramento, and Ogden, the Union Pacific and Central Pacific land grants held little value. The land only became valuable once you had a railroad to connect it to the rest of the county.

Finally even those stipulations apply only to those lines built with land grants. While the UP, ATSF, NP, and SP received a lot of land grants, Great Northern and many of the eastern lines didn't get any. Your justification appears to be that if one railroad got a land grant the government has the right to take over any company.

Railroads and other corporations are not people, and their so-called "rights" are inferior to the rights of We the People. Along with rights go responsibilities. And corporate shareholders gave up their collective individual property rights when they incorporated, in exchange for the privilege of limited personal liability.

So stockholders are not people? Their property rights are not to be protected? Because while they may only be a few shares, those shares are very definitely my property. When the government takes over the railroads what happens to the value of the BNSF and NS stock in my portfolio? Exactly how do you expect to raise capital for any enterprise if at any moment the government can seize the property of the stockholders without compensation? And as a railroad stockholder I object to your claiming that I am somehow less than a person.