About


The Model Operations Processing System (MOPS) has been designed to assist operations on model railroads/railways. It has been designed to have the ‘look and feel’ of a typical large mainframe system that would have been in use from the 1960s to the end of the century.

Some experience of computers is required to get MOPS up and running.  There is no installation package for MOPS, and users need to download additional facilities (eg Python, SQLite) in addition to MOPS itself.  MOPS does run on most PC platforms (Windows, Linux, Mac) and can run cross-platform over a network.

Because MOPS is emulating older mainframe systems, it’s a text-based entry system – there are no graphics! Although it may take a little time to master the various commands, once they’re known it’s faster to use than a graphics-based system where detail is lost in menus and windows. The system has been designed to be fast and accurate – not pretty.

MOPS is a sophisticated system that supports a range of features that moves modelling of realistic operations a stage closer:

  • Industries generate goods for movement; and request empty cars/wagons to be supplied, or full cars/wagons to be sent

  • MOPS replicates loading and unloading times, and ensures that a commodity can only be loaded/unloaded into appropriate cars/wagons

  • Trains can be scheduled, run and monitored against a normal or fast clock: timetables support daily differences and even holidays.

  • Trains can be built from individual cars/wagons or in blocks of cars for ease of use; and multiple-unit (set) working is also supported

  • Cars/wagons and locomotives have maintenance requirements; and locomotives also have fueling requirements

  • MOPS also includes both automatic and user alerting – if there’s an issue, you can let everyone know at once.

MOPS runs on Windows, Mac and Linux.  MOPS can be used by multiple numbers of people across a local mixed (Windows, Mac, Linux) network, all sharing the same data. It also supports local printing.

MOPS and the packages required to support it (Python, SQLite) are all free.  MOPS source code is provided to allow users to change their system, if required, to their own particular purpose (if you do that, please let me know, and the changes could be incorporated into later releases of MOPS).

Note that MOPS does NOT link to the railroad/railway itself. It is not intended to actually operate the railroad/railway by computer, but to provide an operational aspect to using the railroad/railway.