With a number of plants already in operation here and 125 acres cleared and graded for more, this air view of part of the remaining 1,400 acres of a tract of Southern's industrial property near Atlanta illustrates 1966's heady industrial development mixture of boom in the present and room to grow along the railway's lines in tomorrow's South. Symbolic of the substantial acreage's of land throughout its System that Southern has earmarked for industrial use, this tract is located between the railway and Interstate Highway 85, 14 miles northeast of downtown Atlanta.



Southern Railway System's fast-developing territory recorded another year of impressive industrial growth in 1966. From the standpoint of total dollar investment and the number of new job opportunities created by industrial expansion, this ranks as the South's best year in more than a decade.

Even the bare statistics make encouraging reading. Along Southern's system lines' and affiliates in 1966 there were 353 industrial projects. These included 91 new industrial plants, 87 warehousing and distribution centers, and 175 major additions to already existing plants.

They represent total investments of $730,245,500 and estimates are that they will provide 27,386 new jobs in the region when they reach full operation.

Although the injection of almost three-quarters of a billion dollars of investment spending has an immediate effect on the economy of any region, this is only the beginning. The impact of new jobs and payrolls, with the resulting increase in buying and consuming power, continues to keep cash registers ringing and business growing in an area for years.

This is one reason why experienced industrial planners warn against the urge to make annual comparisons of industrial development in an area. Unlike sales or expenditures that can be usefully charted and compared on an annual basis, industrial development is cumulative rather than comparative. Each new plant and warehouse, each plant expansion, exerts its influence on the local and regional economy as long as the company is productively in business.

Petrochemicals - Amoco Chemicals Corporation of Chicago, a subsidiary of Standard Oil Company (Indiana), announced in 1966 the construction of additional facilities at its multimillion-dollar plant in Decatur, Ala., to produce petrochemicals used in the manufacture of polyester fibers and films. Before the original plant was completed an expansion was begun and then construction of an additional unit to produce raw materials was announced.


Industrial development along Southern's lines has been likened to a set of irregular stair steps. Some steps are steeper than others but each rests squarely on the one before and they all lead upward. This is probably the most accurate way to think of it. To make a completely valid comparison on an annual basis would require adjustments in the figures to take into account the inflation of construction and equipment costs and the fact that Southern's lines now represent 10,400 miles of railroad rather than 8,000.

Far more significant is the healthy variety of the South's growth and the diversification of industry in Southern's territory.

Development along Southern Railway and its affiliated lines in 1966 did not occur only in a few product lines but covered a broad spectrum of American industry .Substantial investment was made in establishing or expanding chemicals plants, metals and metalworking facilities, fiber and textile manufacturing, electric power plants, and pulp and paper mills. These are basic industries that serve and attract satellite industrial communities around them.

Valuable growth was recorded, too, in electrical equipment and appliance manufacturing, in warehousing and distribution centers of various kinds, in lumber, woodworking and building materials, in rubber and rubber products, in food and beverages industries, and in flour, feed and fertilizer.

Industrial developments of 1966 that are pictured on these pages were chosen at random from 'across Southern's system to give "an idea of the size and diversity of new industries and plant expansions along the railway's lines. Many other examples could be mentioned, including the following:

Aluminum - Reynolds Metals Company's Listerhill plant complex near Sheffield, Ala., was the scene of the expenditure of millions of dollars for new buildings and equipment during 1966. The reduction plant (furthest from the camera) makes aluminum from alumina while the alloys plant products include sheet, rod and bar aluminum, tubing, blanks and structural shapes. The electrical division plant within the alloys plant compex produces aluminum wire and ca5le.


Transformers - An $11 million expansion at General Electric's Rome, Georgia, Medium Transformer Department will involve the construction of several new buildings (light areas in photo) and will add 25 per cent more floor space to existing facilities. The expansion will permit General Electric to build bigger transformers, in keeping with market trends toward larger-type units.


TV and Stereo - The Magnavox Company of Tennessee in 1966 substantially enlarged its Greeneville, Tenn., plant-the company's principal facility for manufacturing black and white and color television sets as well as stereo combinations. (This photograph shows the plant as it looked before the new addition was started.)


Soybean Processing - A new plant at Gainesville, Ga., for processing soybeans was opened during the past year by the Vegetable Oil Division of Cargill, Inc. Plant capacity is slated to rise from 10 to 15 million bushels a year.


Pumps and Compressors - Gilbarco, Inc., has a new pump and compressor manufacturing plant at Friendship, N.C., near Greensboro that is creating approximately 750 new area job opportunities.


Distribution of projects, investment and new job opportunities by states proved to be closely proportional to the amount of Southern's mileage in the state. The four states containing the most mileage of Southern and affiliated lines also recorded the largest amount of industrial investment-Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina and North Carolina.

This gives good indication that Southern's industrial developers work with even-handed impartiality to promote the industrial and economic growth of all Southern-served communities.

Southern's alert and experienced industrial development team works closely with site-seeking industries and industry-seeking communities in Southern's territory .The railway seeks to bring these two natural partners together to the benefit of both in ways that will produce more freight business for Southern.

Allen H. Douglas, the railway's vice-president in charge of industrial development, heads a staff of more than twenty located in headquarters at Atlanta and elsewhere in the South and East. He foresees changing patterns of economic growth but no pause in the industrial momentum of the South.

"Industry is still keenly interested in the South's mineral resources," he says, "but instead of hauling the raw materials out they're putting processing plants n~ the sources because these are also near markets in the developing South."

Aluminum processing, for example, he expects to be moved nearer the sources of raw materials in years ahead. Research is already proving that the extraction of alumina from the South's abundant clays is possible. The next step is to make it economically feasible.

The more research of this kind that industry does on raw materials and processing," Douglas points out, "the more new industrial complexes we will see develop in the South.

Auto and Truck Tires - General Tire and Rubber Company had under construction In 1966 a $15 million new plant at Charlotte, N.C., for the manufacture of auto and truck tires. At peak production it is expected to employ almost 1,000 people. This plant is located on a portion of the 2,000 acre, Southern-owned Arrowood Southern industrial park.


Felt and Fabric - The Arrowhead Division of Burlington Mills formally opened in October, 1966, a new plant at Danville, Ky., manufacture felt and fabric industrial trim. It occupies 22 acres of land, has 170,000 sq. ft. of floor space and will employ 200.


Fiberglas - Owens - Corning Fiberglas Corporation's plant at Aiken, S.C., scene of a major expansion in 1966, is one of two Owens Corning facilities in the state. This plant, which began operations in 1960, is the company's newest facility for the manufacture of continuous filament glass yarns for industrial and decorative fabric.


"Take phosphate in north Florida and south Georgia. People have known for years that it was there but apparently the time was not right for its development. Now there's a world-wide market for fertilizer phosphates and the potential is tremendous."

Another continuing growth trend in the South involves synthetic fibers, an industry that has expanded as agricultural production of raw cotton moved westward.

Southern tries to anticipate product and process research by industry and has its own industrial geologist at work on location studies of limestone, coal and phosphate in the railway's territory.

The recent acquisition by Central of Georgia of 325 acres of land at Morrow, in Clayton County, Ga., for industrial park development highlights another area of Southern usefulness to the Souths growth.

Southern and its affiliated lines have substantial acreages of land set aside with a "reserved for industry" sign to keep this land from being used in ways that would leave interested industry with no place to locate. More and more, Southern is clearing and grading these sites, seeing that they are equipped with utilities and fitting them to the requirements of industrial prospects.

The railway's industrial development people are working out new and specialized information brochures not only on this industrial land the railway has available but covering on-line locations owned by others. One special set of brochures will deal with large sites of the kind needed for basic metals plants and other heavy processing industries.

Study is being made of the use of Southern's computer center to coordinate industrial site information in ways that will make industrial development work more precise and more effective.

Speaking to a Chamber of Commerce group in Georgia recently, Allen Douglas aptly characterized the attitude of the industrial development specialists, site and planning engineers and industrial engineers Southern has at work on the South's behalf and its own.

"We will go anywhere, anytime and stay as long as it takes to help areas and communities we serve get the new industries they want and need."