Today (08.08.2013) exactly 50 years ago the biggest ever train robbery happened in England (08.08.1963). The Glasgow to London travelling post office (TPO) train was stopped by a red light at Sears Crossing. The signals had been tampered with, unknown to the driver, with a glove placed over the green light and a six-volt battery temporarily powering the red one. The co-driver David Whitby went to call the signalman only to find the telephone cables had been cut. Upon returning to the train, he was thrown down the embankment of the railway track.
A 15-member gang, led by Bruce Reynolds and including Biggs, Charlie Wilson, Jimmy Hussey, Roy James, Jimmy White, Tommy Wisbey, Gordon Goody and Buster Edwards, one of whom was an ex-British Army paratrooper, boarded the train and began to unload the money sacks into waiting vehicles on the road below the bridge. Although no guns were used, the train driver was hit on the head with an iron bar, causing a black eye and facial bruising. The assailant was one of two members of the gang who was never identified. Frank Williams (at the time a Detective Inspector) claims to have traced the man, but he could not be charged because of lack of evidence. Mills recovered but had constant trauma headaches the rest of his life. He died in 1970 from leukemia.
£2,631,784 was stolen in used £1, £5 and £10 notes, the equivalent of £40 million (US $80 million) adjusted for 2006 inflation. (Source:
http://www.citizendia.org/Great_Train_Robbery_(1963))
Until today: From the stolen money of £2,631,784 only £330'000 where found. Many details of the robbery are still in dark.
The following song was dedicated to that event:
Paul Hardcastle "Just for Money"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOBrXp4sdDk