Looking at the Picture, the whole depot scene there at Whitney looks sort of decrepit and unkempt like it was probably close to abandonment...so if the Depot was closed down, the train order signal was probably just disregarded even though it was displaying a "stop" indication. This would explain the scene satisfactorily. It may have been that the cable operating that one side had slippped or broken, allowing the semaphore blade to rise to the position shown, when it should have been down in the "clear" position like the opposite side is.
I've often thought about making a smaller scale replica mebbe about 10 feet tall of one of these old Train Order Semaphores and put it out by my mailbox by the road.....then I can set the blade to "stop" to tell the mail carrier there is a letter to pick up.
Oughta be something nobody else has got, eh?