This was to allow the 4.40am train from Benalla to pass.
At first, Arthur Phillips, driver of the 2.20am train, found the semaphore signal against him.
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However, he got the attention of staff at Baddaginnie station. The semaphore was lowered.
His train then entered the Number two platform and drew to a halt.
George Stephenson, the train’s guard, and John Bain, Assistant Stationmaster, began to unload goods from the guard's van, while Phillips and his fireman saw to the train’s locomotive.
As the men heard the approaching 4.40am train, Bain looked up and saw the lights on the track’s signals were out. They were his responsibility.
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He cried "Good God! What have I done? I have turned the train onto the wrong line.”
When he saw the incoming train, Deegan, the guard of the stationary train, grabbed a lantern and ran up the platform trying to attract the attention of the incoming train.
Phillips saw the incoming train with its heavy locomotive turn towards Number two platform and the siding loop.
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It should have remained on the main line and passed through Number one platform. Phillips screamed at his fireman to jump for his life.
Both men had scarcely hit the ground when the incoming train ground into the stationary one at full speed.
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George Cherry, the driver of the incoming train and the train’s guard escaped serious injury, but its fireman, Robert Campbell, was killed in the collision.
At the inquest, evidence stated that signal lamps were all alight at 10.15pm when an earlier train passed through.
When the 2.20am train arrived, the lamps were out and the semaphore was up.
Railway instructions required a train facing such a signal to proceed cautiously and not to pass the station’s semaphore until it was lowered.
Phillips, driver of the first train, complied with these instructions. Cherry did not.
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When Bain reset the semaphore to the up position after Phillips’ train had run into the siding loop, he had noticed that its lights were out.
Despite railway instructions, Cherry ignored all signals and maintained his speed.
Cherry’s train was travelling without lights contrary to practice. He also did not notice the red lights of the guards van of the train standing in the siding.
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The stationary locomotive was derailed and pushed fifty metres. The train’s rear was pushed 400 metres along the tracks. Both locomotives were badly damaged.
As is usual with fatal rail accidents, the inquest attributed responsibility.
The Coroners’ jury in Benalla found George Cherry guilty of manslaughter.
John Bain was at fault for not keeping the signal lamps in proper order, but the jury found that he had no culpable negligence.
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Cherry faced the Benalla Supreme Court in October.
As is usual in such cases, the trial of the person initially thought responsible was found not guilty.
Robert Campbell is buried in Benalla cemetery. He was 33.
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