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In earlier days, the Railway telegraph system was maintained by the Posts and Telegraphs Department. An Engineering Supervisor, Telegraphs (EST) will be in charge of these telegraph lines which is installed along the rail tracks and was used to communicate between the stations, control room etc. Telegraph Linemen were posted to maintain and remove the faults of these lines, which was most essential for the regular running of the trains. The Telegraph Linemen were allotted quarters by the Railways and they were treated as on 24 hours duty. He was ‘VIP'(Very Important Person) indeed!
Every morning, these linemen will call the Fault Control or the Carrier station and find out whether any fault has been reported and also to get the lines tested. It was a very tedious job for them. In the Railways Junctions, the telegraph posts were full of many wire lines, which only very experts can identify and repair. The Sub Inspector (SI) Telegraphs or the Line Inspector (LI) Telegraphs will give guidance to the Linemen in such circumstances.
Later, the Railway telegraph lines were handed over to Railways and the responsibility of maintaining and repair also went to them. Gradually, the overhead lines mostly changed to cables. Now latest technologies are used for the Railways.
VAN Namboodiri's Blog 
Some 55 years back, an Sub Inspector was posted in Bathinda Carrier Station, who used to look after Rly. Communication. His name was Sh. Khabar Lal. A 59 year old man, with short height, very weak in his old age and very submissive but very hard working gentle soul.
Due to frequent thefts of open wire alignments, the communication system of Railways were disrupted almost everyday and complaints were booked with Police authorities on daily basis. Sensitive the gravity of situation, Police Deptt. ordered their Sub Inspector to meet our Sub Inspector, to work out the strategy to man the culprits.
Sub Inspector came with his team in a jeep. He was a well built young man with big moustaches and supported a pistol on his uniform. He was expecting our SI to be of a similar physique as he himself was.
When the two SIs met. SI Police was so impressed by the fact that this poor SI of our department was maintaining such a wide network of lines with so much hard work and such a humility that he saluted our SI, while our SI folded his hands in his innocence.
A very interesting episode. We have to thank such comrades who created history and raised the standards of the P and T service. Thank you comrade for the news!