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Premieres 26 October 2026 at 6pm UK time
The Old Fox: Case Files · Episode 3
How to rob a train: ask it nicely to stop
What's the easiest way to rob a train? Ask it nicely to stop.
August 1963: a glove, a battery and a fake red signal stop the night mail. The gang takes over £2.6 million, plays Monopoly at a farmhouse hideout, and leaves fingerprints on the board.
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What the fox said
What's the easiest way to rob a train? Ask it nicely to stop. Let's see what's on.
August, 1963. The night mail train from Glasgow to London.
In the early hours, the driver sees a red signal at Sears Crossing, and stops. Exactly as planned.
A gang had rigged it. A glove over the green light, and a battery to light the red.
The driver is attacked and injured. Then they move the engine and front carriages down the line to Bridego Bridge.
In around half an hour, they haul a hundred and twenty mailbags down the embankment.
Inside: more than two point six million pounds.
They hole up at Leatherslade Farm, and reportedly play Monopoly with the real banknotes.
But a herdsman's tip-off leads police to the farm, five days after the robbery.
And they find fingerprints. On the Monopoly board, and on a bottle of tomato ketchup.
At Aylesbury, in 1964, seven of them are jailed for thirty years.
Fifteen months later, Ronnie Biggs goes over the wall of Wandsworth Prison by rope ladder, onto a waiting furniture van.
He spent thirty-six years on the run, then came home, and went straight back to prison. Most of the money was never recovered.
Crime pays? Only in Monopoly money. Case closed. Keep your nose to the wind.
Sources
- In the early hours of 8 August 1963 the Royal Mail's Glasgow–London night mail train was stopped at Sears Crossing, Buckinghamshire, by a signal rigged with a glove over the green light and a battery to light the red (Wikipedia, 'Great Train Robbery (1963)').
- The driver was attacked and injured, and the engine and front carriages were moved to Bridego Bridge, where a gang of about 15 took 120 of 128 mailbags holding more than £2.6 million, something like £50 million today (Wikipedia, 'Great Train Robbery (1963)').
- The gang hid at Leatherslade Farm, where they reportedly played Monopoly with the real money; police found the farm on 13 August after a herdsman's tip-off, with fingerprints on the Monopoly board and a ketchup bottle (The National Archives, 'The Great Train Robbery: a forensic journey').
- Ronnie Biggs, jailed for 30 years after the 1964 trial at Aylesbury, escaped from Wandsworth Prison on 8 July 1965 by rope ladder onto a furniture van; he spent about 36 years abroad, returned voluntarily in May 2001 and was jailed again (Wikipedia, 'Ronnie Biggs'; British Transport Police history).
- Most of the money was never recovered (Wikipedia, 'Great Train Robbery (1963)').
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