Arriving home to an empty flat in Albury on June 17, 1982, Klein strummed a few chords and the words soon followed.

His flatmate Mark Wilson, 18, had died instantly that morning when the goods train on which he was working as a fireman ploughed into the Spirit of Progress passenger train, which was broken down in pea soup fog north of Barnawartha.

Goods train engine driver George Sandford, 49, of Wodonga, also perished that day.

Miraculously, there were no fatalities on the Spirit carrying 130 passengers - which was shunted 25 metres - although a buffet car worker was scalded with water from an urn.

While a VicRail inquiry pinned much of the blame for the accident on Mr Sandford, subsequent investigations and theories have revealed Mr Sandford and Mr Wilson obeyed traffic signals and likely saved scores of lives by braking when they did and blowing the whistle repeatedly.

After watching the trains being prised apart at Barnwartha that afternoon, Klein penned his song Spirit to try to make sense of the tragedy, which had been compounded by a litany of systems and communications errors.

Alarmingly, there was no driver to driver radio communication on the Sydney to Melbourne line in 1982.

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Klein said Mr Sandford and Mr Wilson were heroes, who likely saved many lives.

They applied the brakes, they did not leave their posts.

George Sandford and Mark Wilson had more courage than most.

It is believed Mr Sandford and Mr Wilson did not see the Spirit of Progress in thick fog until they topped a crest moments before the crash.

At the time Inspector Bruce Wallace, of Wodonga police, said the goods train was travelling fairly slowly when it hit the Spirit of Progress.

"If it had been going any faster, or if it was fully loaded, the damage would have been far worse," he said.

Klein said he played Spirit a couple of times before he shelved it for the better part of four decades.

With the 40th anniversary on Friday, Klein felt the time was right to record it.

"Thirty years was too soon and 50 years will be too late; 40 seemed about right," he said.

Recorded at Studio A in Lavington, Spirit features Peter Klein (lead vocals and guitar), Liz Ellerbock (backing vocals), Jack Jensen (harmonica) and Rowan Brown (drums).

The Spirit was broken down.

And theirs will never be forgotten.

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