Old TOPS Video

[itareus]

Mostly of interest to those who follow British Rail practice, if you have no idea what TOPS is then have a look at this old video (20mins):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=MKRpC1lcoDk

(Note: TOPS was originally developed by the Southern Pacific.)

 

[JCitron]

That's a pretty sophisticated system they developed back in the early-1960s and fully implemented in the 1970s. With this system being obsolete, I'm sure today a similar system is being developed, if not already, that uses RFD tracking devices instead of manual entry of the data.

I wonder if something like this couldn't be developed for use in Trainz, although it may have already with the CMTM system.

I love the old hardware - punch card terminals, cards, platter drives, and the big mainframes. I used to work on video terminals and those big platter drives and controllers.

John

 

[itareus]

I think CMTM is as close as needs be, true TOPS would not really suit operations in Trainz as you would need to manually apply a destination to all loaded wagons.

I still have an old IBM manual (1 hole) card punch !

Chris

 

[steviez]

Thank you Chris for posting that little gem. I used to work in a TOPS office at implementation in the Nottingham division using the very old punch card and 2 colour vdu's as they were called then, The punch card system was called Ventek from memory which stood in our case for Very Expensive Ever Knackered as they were always breaking! Times moved on and eventually everything was included in TOPS. With loco's and hours in traffic and also coaching stock all being added. Prior to that every vehicle had to be manually written down and consisted etc . TOPS made the work far easier for the yard staff and train crews alike.

 

[itareus]

Ah yes - the card punches, as you say always failing and every time the engineer took one apart and reassembled it there seemed to be surplus parts left behind, usually at least the chad chute and a few screws !

I was on the BR Board's implementation team for locos on TOPS, POIS and cardless TOPS - happy days with a 'work hard, play hard' philosophy and boy did we play hard (away from home all week and sometimes for weeks on end).

Remember some of the characters involved ? Malcolm Beevers springs to mind along with a number of others whose names elude my failing memory at the moment.

Chris.