[8] The southbound diesel hauled Acropolis Express service running the route Munich[9] to Athens and northbound Train 121 Athens to Thessaloniki (known as the "posta" because it also carried the mail)[10] which was also transporting 30 Artillery soldiers[11] from Thebes as transfer to units in Northern Greece.
A few minutes after the Acropolis Express left Larissa, the Paleofarsalos stationmaster give the departure order to Train 121 to proceed.
[14] This was not an issue, as the line was (at the time) single-track, but the trans would use a passing loop at ether Orfanon or Doxara station.
[18] In the meantime, the assistant driver of Train 121, having received complaints from the head of the "mail" that there was a heating problem, left his post and went to the engine room to see the steam generator.
[19] It has also been written that both Train 121 were listening to the broadcast of the Panioni-Olympic football match on the radio that day and were probably engrossed and thus distracted.
In January 1973, at the appeals court in Larissa, Nikolaos Gekas[25] the Orfana stationmaster, was sentenced to five years in prison, while the other two defendants were acquitted.
[29] Subsequently, with the upgrading, track doubling, and electrification of what would become the Piraeus–Platy mainline, the section where the collision took place was replaced with a more direct tunnel between Doxaras and Orfana, bypassing the blind turn completely.