Yeah, I think it was a early 20th-centry computer, basically.
Have you ever tracked a package sent via FedEX or UPS? You can see each and every step it takes.
MCS I believe was that for Michigan Central at the start. Tracking each and every rail car [[and probably each load), calculating the tariffs, making sure every rule was followed, loads tracked, etc. Today its a bar-code reader and a computer the size of a box of Kleenex -- but in 1910 it required legions of people processing paper, and producing paper.
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