Tales from the running box

South Indian Railway was spread out in the most arid regions of southern Tamil Nadu with just a branch line to Kerala

Years after my father’s retirement, rummaging through his running box (the wooden box railwaymen carry on duty), I found a letter censoring him for delaying a Mail train. I asked him what happened, and he said it was a case of crossing of a goods train and a Mail on a single track. He gave clearance to receive the goods train first, but it took unusually long to arrive and delayed the departure of the Mail. In those days, without any centralised traffic control, it was those men on the lines who kept trains running and on their judgment depended the safety and comfort of passengers. It was a revelation to me that my father too could be fallible. He was my childhood hero and teacher till I went to school from Class 3. He was a good volleyball player and made his own team in the stations he was posted. He was academically brilliant with an acute mathematical brain. He joined the old South Indian Railway just after his matriculation results when he was all of 18. His marks were good and the Railways’ offer came too soon. He put aside the thoughts of further studies and joined as a rookie stationmaster. It was also a desire on his part not to burden my grandfather financially.