The Extraordinary Story Of The Great Train Robbery Of 1963: Here's How The Events Unfolded

In 1963, a multimillion-dollar heist forever changed England¡¯s history. The thieves called the job the train, the papers called it the Great Train Robbery, and the police called it the crime of the century. Several books, articles, movies attempted to tell how the robbery took place - but not the way host William Green tells it in the Luminary podcast British Villians - because he has access to perhaps the last surviving man who may or may not have been involved: His dad.

The Royal Mail

Late on Thursday 8 August 1963, a Travelling Post Office train left Glasgow for Euston. Onboard, staff sorted the mail and parcels prior to its arrival in London.

The second carriage from the front of the train was a High-Value Package carriage, where registered mail was sorted. Much of this consisted of cash. Usually, the value of these items would have been in the range of ?300,000 but, because there had been a Bank Holiday weekend in Scotland, the total on the day of the robbery was ?2.6 million (equivalent to ?56 million today).

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Stopping the train

The train passed Leighton Buzzard at about 3 am on 8 August 1963, and moments later the driver saw a red signal ahead at a place called Sears Crossing. The signal was false. A glove had been stuffed onto the proper signal and the red light was activated by attaching it to a six-volt battery.

When the driver stopped, his co-driver climbed out of the diesel engine to ring the signalman to ascertain the problem. He discovered that the cables from the line-side phone had been cut, and as he turned to return to his train he was attacked and thrown down the steep railway embankment.

The gang attack

After tampering with the lineside signals to bring the train to a halt, a gang of 15, led by Bruce Reynolds, attacked the train. Other gang members included Gordon Goody, Buster Edwards, Charlie Wilson, Roy James, John Daly, Jimmy White, Ronnie Biggs, Tommy Wisbey, Jim Hussey, Bob Welch and Roger Cordrey, as well as three men known only as numbers "1", "2" and "3", two of whom later turned out to be Harry Smith and Danny Pembroke. A 16th man, an unnamed retired train driver, was also present.

train-robbers-bridge

In the front two carriages, frightened Post Office staff were pushed to one end by some of the fifteen strong gang ¨C but, in the remaining ten carriages left at Sears Crossing, staff did not even realise anything had happened.

Removing the money

The staff were hit with coshes when they made a vain attempt to prevent the robbers' storming of the carriage. Once the robbers had entered the carriage, the staff could put up no effective resistance and there was no police officer or security guard on board to assist them. The staff were made to lie face down on the floor in a corner of the carriage.

The robbers removed all but eight of the 128 sacks from the carriage, which they transferred in about 15¨C20 minutes to the waiting truck by forming a human chain. The gang departed in their Austin Loadstar truck some 30 minutes after the robbery had begun and, in an effort to mislead any potential witnesses, they used two Land Rover vehicles.

Getaway and planned clean-up

The steep embankments at Sears crossing were unpractical for removing the loot from the train but the gang had planned to drive the train a mile further to Bridego Bridge. Here, Land Rovers were waiting to transport the cash to a nearby hideout.

carriage train

With careful planning based on inside information, the robbers escaped with over ?2.6 million. The bulk of the stolen money was never recovered.

Though the gang did not use any firearms, the train driver was beaten over the head with a metal bar. The driver was so severely injured that he never worked again.

After the robbery, the gang hid at a farm on the outskirts of Oakley. After the police found this hideout, incriminating evidence led to the eventual arrest and conviction of most of the gang. The ringleaders were sentenced to thirty years in jail.

To know more in detail about how things unfolded on that fateful day, and for many more interesting conversations check out Luminary podcasts.