Total Operations Processing System
Total Operations Processing System (TOPS) is a computer system for managing the vehicles (locomotives and wagons) of a railway company. The system was originally developed by the Southern Pacific Railroad . Many railway companies adopted the system. In Europe, TOPS is in use in Great Britain.
development
The Southern Pacific Railroad began developing the Total Operations Processing System with Stanford University and IBM in the early 1960s . The aim was to replace all correspondence associated with the administration of the vehicles with a computer-aided system. Until then, the individual maintenance work, the stationing in the respective division and in the respective depot, the services performed, the current status, the position and much more were noted. Updating the existing data was very time-consuming and coordination between the individual departments always involved telephone inquiries.
As part of the development, the resale to other companies was already calculated in order to partially amortize the development costs. The system was introduced in 1968. This made it possible for the Southern Pacific to make all information about a vehicle available relatively promptly. This enabled, among other things, to inform the freight forwarders about the current location of their freight. The introduction of standardized data interfaces made it possible to exchange information with other railway companies.
The system was eventually sold to some US railways and worldwide.
Takeover by British Railways
Towards the end of the 1960s, British Railways was looking for ways to increase the profitability of the operation. At the Canadian National Railway you got to know TOPS and recognized the possibilities it offers. The system is acquired, consisting of source code and the necessary IBM 360 - mainframe . The purchase of TOPS had to be approved by the cabinet, as at that time in the UK there was a “Buy British” policy for the government. The transfer to operational operation dragged on over several years.
The introduction of the system made it necessary to develop a new designation scheme, as the previous scheme was not suitable. The vehicles were redesigned in 1972 and continued into the late 1970s. Internally, however, the new designation was already used.
Further development
TOPS is now considered out of date. The mainframe system with text terminals is user-unfriendly, requires cryptic input and, due to its difficult operation, leads to frequent errors. In addition, there is the proprietary programming language TOPSTRAN, which makes maintenance difficult due to the lack of developers.
The system is still used in the UK today, although it was never created to meet the needs of several rail companies. Some companies only use the system for absolutely necessary matters.
Attempts to provide the program with a user-friendly interface (TOPS 2000) or to set up new parallel systems have so far failed.
Sample expression
This is a typical expression as it can be generated by TOPS. The train has 25 cars with a load of 888 tons and runs from Over & Wharton, near Winsford to Reading West Junction. The train departed at 3:20 pm with a delay of 2 hours and 20 minutes. Train locomotives were 25901 and 25908.
K383400 0010 2837 22/10/86 U483 ON N199 BY KO TRAIN ENQUIRY RESPONSE FOR 377Z380 22 TFA - 9KJ ACTUAL TRAIN ID 377Z380 22 BOOKED 7Z380 DEP OVER&WHAR 1520 22 2 HRS 20 MINS LATE FOR REASON L CAT B SECTOR 5 LOCO 25901 LOCO 25908 25 LDS 0 MTYS 888 TONNES 799 T/FT 418 POTENTIAL VAC BRAKE FORCE STATION CONSIST ARR DEP LDS MTYS SCHEDULE 37015 OVER&WHAR 1520 025 000 71212 65700 BESCOTYD NRP 1707 EST 1709 EST 025 000 74260 READINGWJ DETAIL 2007 EST 025 000 END