TOPS

Total Operations Processing System, or TOPS, is a computer system for managing the locomotives and rolling stock owned by and/or operated on a rail system. It was originally developed by the American-based Southern Pacific Railroad and was widely sold; it is best known in Britain for its use by British Rail (BR) and its successors. The Southern Pacific Railroad was ahead of the pack in its embracing of technology. In the early 1960s, it developed a computer system called 'Total Operations Processing System', or 'TOPS'. The purpose was to take all the paperwork associated with a locomotive or rolling stock - its maintenance history, its allocation to division and depot and duty, its status, its location, and much more - and keep it in computer form, constantly updated by terminals at every maintenance facility. On paper, this information was difficult to keep track of, difficult to keep up to date, and difficult to query; requiring many telephone calls. Computerizing this information enabled a railroad to keep better track of its assets, and to use them better.