NCR 299 & NCR 399

I studied programming for NCR 299 and NCR 399 at the Computer Center of Container Terminal of Leningrad’s Commercial Seaport in 1976 when I arrived there after graduating from the Odessa’s Institute of Marine Engineers.

These computers were bought at the exhibition, which took place at Leningrad in 1975. As far as I remember NCR 299 had little practical usage at the Container Terminal, but NCR 399 has been used on the round-the-clock basis, controlling containers’ data (arrival, loading/unloading, departure) which shift dispatchers of the Container Terminal prepared during the shift and sent in the form of Shift’s Reports to the NCR 399 computer operators for input to the Containers’ Data Base.

Before application software for controlling containers’ data was ready, shift dispatchers where using special control cards for it.

These cards were two-sided: one side - Inward Container Control Card - for incoming containers and the other - Outward Container Control Card - for outgoing containers. Several desks of special type represented territory of the Container Terminal. Each place for container at the Terminal’s territory was ‘fixed’ on the desks with perforation, where Inward/Outward Container Control Cards is to be placed, reflecting the always-changed situation with containers. Cards’ positions on the desks were not always relevant to the physical containers positions at the territory, therefore once a week all available staff of the Terminal went through the territory, comparing real containers positions with their ‘positions’ at the desk.

To utilize the Container Terminal’s territory effectively, containers were stacked in three layers. This was an extra ‘headache’ for dispatchers and additional source of mistakes while moving control cards over the desks.

Movement of containers at the Terminal’s territory has been provided with special Container Loaders. As far as I remember, they were Germany-made ‘Peiner’ and Sweden-made ‘Kalmar’. With orange flashing lights on their cabins and siren-like alarm sounds they made quite mystic impression, especially in the night time.

Loading/unloading of containers to/from vessels and trains has been provided with special gantry cranes. You can see one of them on the photo above.

We used NEAT 399 (Near-English Automatic Translator) to program the NCR 399.

My colleagues - programmers at the Computer Center of the Container Terminal - were:

• Natalya Petukhina;
• Elena Kopylova;
• Galina Polyakova;
• Marina Lokhmachyova;
• Nadezhda Gerasimenko;
• Dmitry Shiryayev;
• Galina Yatsenko;
• Ludmila Yufereva

NCR 8250

The NCR 8250 arrived in 1977 and I studied programming for it with the help of NCR instructors from Augsburg, West Germany. The NCR 8250 has been used also on the round-the-clock basis, controlling containers’ data (arrival, loading/unloading, departure). The shift dispatchers of the Container Terminal used NCR 796-101 CRT Terminals working online or preparing necessary data at the standalone NCR 7200 terminals and sent it on cassettes to the computer operators for input to the Containers’ Data Base.

Writing applications for the NCR 8250 we used high level programming language NCR IMOS COBOL 74.

At that time there were only 4 (four) NCR 8200 and NCR 8250 in the Soviet Union:

• NCR 8200, Riga, Ministry of Trade, Supermarket “Minsk”;
• NCR 8200, Leningrad, Supermarket “Jubilej”;
• NCR 8250, Leningrad, Computer Center of Container Terminal of Commercial Seaport;
• NCR 8250, Moscow, Hotel “Cosmos”.

Instructors and NCR Staff in Charge

• Heinz Kallenbach, System Analytics;
• Heinz Groetsch, Bereich Bildung;
• Rudi Dohn, Bereich Bildung
• Gerhard Hoffmann, Field Engineering and Supplies, Central and Eastern Europe;
• Wilhelm Czech, Project Manager;
• Walter Knopfle, System Support;
• Petr Kostal, Obchodne-technicke sluzby NCR v CSR.

My NCR Diplomas

EDP System NCR 8200 Operating Course

Riga, 23.09.1976 - 04.10.1976

Instructor: ????????????? - NCR, Augsburg, West Germany

• Aleksandrs Guba - Leningrad, Morflot;
• Yekaterina Sergienko - Riga, MT;
• Alexander Rutchkovskiy - Riga, MT;
• Marina Surnachyova - Riga, MT;
• Tatyana Stepanenkova - Riga, MT.

I still remember that to confirm Operator’s agreement to the Operating System question you must enter from keyboard “EE” (Errors Excepted) not “OK” as it is generally used now.

Advanced NEAT Course

Leningrad, 21.03.1977 - 01.04.1977

Instructor: Heinz Kallenbach - NCR, Augsburg, West Germany

• Aleksandrs Guba - Leningrad, Morflot
• Natalya Petukhina - Leningrad, Morflot;
• Elena Kopylova - Leningrad, Morflot;
• Galina Yefremova - Moscow, Cosmos;
• Tatyana Morozova - Moscow, Cosmos;
• Alexander Akimov - Moscow, Cosmos;
• Svetlana Djuzhayeva - Moscow, Cosmos;
• Tamara Zelenova - Moscow, Cosmos.

To see the Listing of Advanced NEAT Macros which we studied at the Course click here

EDP System NCR CENTURY Course

Leningrad, 23.05.1977 - 27.05.1977

Instructor: Rudi Dohn - NCR, Augsburg, West Germany

• Aleksandrs Guba - Leningrad, Morflot;
• Rudi Dohn - Augsburg, NCR;
• Vassiliy ????????? - Leningrad, Jubilei;
• Valentina Moshinova - Leningrad, Jubilei;
• Tamara Vasilieva - Leningrad, Jubilei;
• Olga Babina - Leningrad, Jubilei;
• Karl Weiss - Leningrad, LEM.

COBOL 74 NCR 8250 IMOS III Course

Leningrad, 10.05.1978 - 26.05.1978

Instructor: Heinz Groetsch - NCR, Augsburg, West Germany

• Aida Lutscheva - Leningrad, Jubilei;
• Elena Kopylova - Leningrad, Morflot;
• Marina Surnachyova - Riga, MT;
• Tatyana Stepanenkova - Riga, MT;
• Galina Yatsenko - Leningrad, Morflot;
• Valentina Moshinova - Leningrad, Jubilei;
• Tamara Vasilieva - Leningrad, Jubilei;
• Heinz Groetsch - Augsburg, NCR;
• Olga Babina - Leningrad, Jubilei;
• Victor Kirsanov - Leningrad, Morflot;
• Marina Lokhmachyova - Leningrad, Morflot;
• Natalya Petukhina - Leningrad, Morflot;
• Victor Aleksandrov - Leningrad, Morflot;
• Aleksandrs Guba - Leningrad, Morflot.