The train robbery that gripped a nation

Last week on television I watched the two-part series The Great Train Robbery, an intriguing account of the audacious heist that made headlines in Britain all those years ago. It slowly dawned on me that this month is the 60th anniversary of that extraordinary robbery which took place on August 8, 1963, on the Royal Mail train from Glasgow to London. Frightening how time flies.

To put things in perspective the Beatles had just released their first album, Please Please Me and at our school dance to celebrate the summer holidays the most popular song was “Twist and Shout”.

News about the robbery gripped the nation right from the start and the brazen nature of the well-organised operation sparked huge newspaper headlines. The sum stolen, (£2.5 million) was the biggest heist in British history at that time. When we returned to school in September the robbery was still the major topic of conversation.

Despite concern over the train driver Jack Mills suffering serious head injuries, the sheer effrontery of the heist captured the public’s imagination and there was a danger the tabloid press could turn the villains into celebrities of a sort.

The robbery even became a board game similar to Monopoly which the gang played while killing time at Leatherslade Farm after the heist. The robbers were amused that in Monopoly they could land in the ”Go to Jail” space, although that was where most of them ended up in reality, partly due to fingerprints left on the Monopoly board. And they couldn’t use the “get out of jail free” card.

The copper and the robber

The government saw it as a major embarrassment and an attack on the establishment and the police were under huge pressure to find the culprits quickly. It wasn’t long before the robbery became the topic of a withering Beyond the Fringe sketch featuring Peter Cook and Alan Bennett.

The officer in charge of the case was Tommy Butler, nicknamed “One-day Tommy'” owing to his reputation for nabbing culprits within 24 hours of the crime being committed. However, it took a little longer in this case five years to be precise for ringleader Bruce Reynolds.

Four of the estimated 16-man gang were quickly apprehended but hunting down “mastermind” Reynolds proved more difficult as he fled to Mexico and Canada. He was finally arrested in the Devon seaside resort of Torquay. No, he wasn’t staying at Fawlty Towers.

Upon apprehending Reynolds, Butler greeted him with: “Long time no see Bruce. But I’ve got you at last.” Reynolds shrugged and replied “C’est la vie, Tom”. All very civilised.

The punk singer

One reason the Great Train Robbery remained in the news for decades was the escapades of one of the gang, Ronnie Biggs, who used a rope-ladder in a dramatic escape from Wandsworth jail in 1965. He fled to Europe and Australia before ending up as a kind of celebrity in Brazil.

His exploits have been well documented, including performing lead vocals on a couple of songs with British punk group The Sex Pistols. The chorus of one of his songs goes: “Ronnie Biggs was doing time, until he done a bunk, now he says he’s seen the light, and he’s sold his soul to punk.”

Not exactly TS Eliot but the record reached No 7 on the UK charts in 1978.

Diesel 326

I admit to having been bit of an anorak in my early teens. Although I was only interested in the steam trains, in my ancient trainspotting book I have underlined Diesel 326, the engine that was pulling the Royal Mail train on that fateful day in 1963. I must have seen D326 on one of my trips to Euston station in the early 60s. So I saw the engine that was to feature in a little slice of history, although I didn’t know it at the time.

On my most recent trip to Britain in 20I5 I travelled by train from Glasgow to Euston on the same route taken by the ill-fated mail train. The times have speeded up considerably since the days of the robbery when it was a nine-hour 20-minute journey. On my trip it took just four hours and 40 minutes. In Thailand the “express” train on the Ubon Ratchathani-Bangkok route which is just 15km longer, takes 11 hours 14 minutes on a good day.

Bournemouth Belle

One train in England I fondly remember is the Bournemouth Belle which I am pleased to say never suffered the indignity of being robbed or made into a board game. Back in the 1960s it would leave Waterloo in the late morning, and we would give it a wave as it hurtled past my grandmother’s house in Farnborough every lunchtime. You could virtually tell the time by the train, something that would be most unlikely in Thailand.

Every day just before 1.10pm there was a shaking and rumbling and within a minute the chocolate and yellow Pullman carriages flashed past often hauled by magnificent Merchant Class steam engines with names like Cunard White Star and Holland-America Line. It was a truly wonderful sight, and my grandmother would get quite concerned if the “Belle” was even a few minutes late.

Perhaps one day we will witness a Bangkok Belle thundering across Thailand, destination Nakhon Nowhere.

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