 The signalman wanted to cross a freight train travelling in the opposite direction behind the passenger train, but the points were locked by a track circuit until the passenger train was well clear of them.In order to defeat the interlocking and speed things up, he had pulled the points slide slightly out of the frame.This action held the protecting signal at red as a safety measure, so in order to clear it, he obtained a false feed between two of the economiser contacts, most likely using a Bardic lamp or a broken hinge that was subsequently found.