Editing TOPS (section)

==Early development==
During the 1950s and 1960s, it was increasingly recognised that the adoption of [[computer]]-based management systems could provide substantial benefits in various operations, particularly those involving [[logistics]].<ref name = "railarch"/> Consequently, by the 1960s, various railways in various countries, including [[Japan]], [[Canada]], and the [[United States]] had begun to develop and introduce such systems. Amongst the organisations that adopted the technology early on was the [[Southern Pacific Railroad]] (SP).<ref name = "railarch">{{cite web |url = https://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/documents/BRB_TOPS1979.pdf |title = TOPS: The story of a British Railways Project |publisher = |first = Robert |last = Amott |date = 1979}}</ref>

During the late 1950s, SP entered into discussions with the American technology company [[IBM]] about implementing its technology for rail management purposes.<ref name = "railarch"/> IBM repurposed much of their work on the US Air Force's [[Semi-Automatic Ground Environment|SAGE]] project, designed to direct interceptor aircraft against approaching Soviet nuclear bombers, to instead serve the needs of the Southern Pacific.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Aylen |first1=Jonathan |last2=Gwynne |first2=Bob |title=Meet Tops British Rail's Management System |journal=ITNOW |date=1 March 2019 |volume=61 |issue=1 |pages=46–47 |doi=10.1093/itnow/bwz019}}</ref> The project gained the name ''Total Operations Processing System'', or ''TOPS'', and its development was handled by a specially established consultancy company, ''TOPS On-Line Inc.'', which was 80 percent owned by SP with the remaining stake held by IBM.<ref name = "railarch"/>

TOPS 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.<ref name=s-b>{{Simmons-Biddle}}, pp. 515-516.</ref><ref name = "railarch"/> On paper, this information was difficult to keep track of, awkward to keep up to date, and time-consuming to query, requiring many telephone calls. Computerizing this information enabled a railroad to keep better track of its assets, and thus to make better use of them.<ref name=s-b/>

TOPS was a relatively complex system for the era, being not only comprehensive but required to operate in real time.<ref name = "railarch"/> Accordingly, development was particularly time-consuming; according to BR Chief Operations Manager Robert Arnott, the first phase of TOPS involved around 660 [[man-hour|man-year]]s of effort, with eight years passing between the start of work and it being declared operational during mid-1968. Despite the lengthy development time, TOPS quickly proved to be a success for SP; clerks often observed that jobs which had taken half a day and dozens of telephone calls could instead be completed in under five minutes using TOPS.<ref name = "railarch"/>

The success of TOPS with SP soon led to a quick succession of sales of the system to a variety of other American railroads, along with international customers, where it typically proved to be similarly beneficial.<ref name = "railarch"/> Selling TOPS to other operators helped offset the systems' development costs, so SP was keen to sell TOPS to third parties. The company was also motivated to protect its reputation, and thus provided assistance to other railroads interested in TOPS, to improve its chances of success.<ref name = "railarch"/> Some operators, such as the [[Canadian National Railway]], opted to introduce TOPS as an interim measure while its own bespoke system was developed as a long-term successor.<ref name = "railarch"/>