SPINS to the rescue

Matt and I haven’t added substantial content to the Lake Washington Belt Line feature in quite some time but we have continually been on the lookout for new sources to extend the story. Fellow historian Sheldon Perry came through in a big way recently with a scan of a Burlington Northern SPINS document from 1978 that included Kirkland. The BN instituted the Shippers Perpetual Industrial Numbering System, aka SPINS, in the 1970’s, as part of its efforts to create a computerized inventory of every available location to spot a car on an industrial spur. SPINS documents are not the easiest things to decipher and Sheldon was a big help.

The two SPINS pages for Kirkland are packed with information that has been integrated into the Feriton, Depot area, Picadilly area, Par-Mac Industrial Park, and Firloch pages. We now have a much clearer picture of which businesses were receiving railroad service in Kirkland circa 1978. Thanks, Sheldon!