(a) Any group of ten or more persons who desire to be incorporated as a railroad company shall prepare a petition in writing, addressed to the Secretary of State, in which shall be stated:

(1) The names and residences of each of the persons desiring to form the corporation;

(2) The name of the railroad company they desire to have incorporated, provided that in no event shall the name selected be the name of any existing railway corporation in this state;

(3) The length of the road, as near as can be estimated;

(4) The general direction of the road;

(5) The counties through which the road will probably run;

(6) The names of the principal places from which and to which the road is to be constructed;

(7) The amount of the proposed capital stock;

(8) The number of years the company is to continue in existence;

(9) If the capital stock is to consist of common or preferred stock, the amount of each class and the rights and privileges of the latter over the former;

(10) The location of the principal office of the corporation;

(11) A statement that the incorporators intend in good faith to go forward without delay to secure subscriptions to the capital stock and to construct, equip, maintain, and operate the railroad;

(12) A request to be incorporated under the laws of this state; and

(13) A statement that the incorporators have given four weeks' notice of their intention to apply for said charter by the publication of the petition in a newspaper in which the sheriff's advertisements are published in each of the counties through which the proposed road will probably run (if there is a newspaper in each of those counties), once a week for four weeks before the filing of said petition.

(b) There shall be annexed to the petition an affidavit made by three of the persons forming the company, which affidavit shall state that the names subscribed are the genuine signatures of the persons named therein and that the facts stated in the petition are true to the best of petitioners' knowledge, information, and belief.

(c) The petition thus sworn to shall be filed in the office of the Secretary of State, who shall endorse thereon the date of the filing and record the same in a book to be kept by him for that purpose, which book shall be open for inspection by the public at all times during the office hours of the Secretary of State.