The most famous train robbery in British history occurred on August 8, 1963. It was the robbery of the Royal Mail train on its run from Glasgow to London. The robbery had been planned for a long time and involved 16 men, most of them career criminals. Their leader was Bruce Reynolds. They were aided by inside information from a postal employee known to history as “The Ulsterman”. It is still unclear who this individual was. The gang tampered with signals by placing a glove over the green light and using a battery to illuminate the red light to get the train to stop in an isolated area. It was 3 A.M. Although the robbery was accomplished without the use of firearms, the train driver was badly beaten with a metal bar. Sacks of money were removed and the gang drove to a farm to hide-out and divide the loot. The take came to over 2 million pounds (equivalent to around 45 million pounds or $70 million today). Most of the money was never recovered. They famously passed the time at the farm playing Monopoly using real money. The men were forced to disperse earlier than planned because the police manhunt was nearing the farm. One member was given the job of torching the farm, but he chickened out and evidence was left that aided in the tracking down of most of the participants. By 1964, most of them were in jail and most were sentenced to 30 years in prison. Reynolds was an exception as he was able to get to Mexico. He later moved to Canada and then France before returning to Great Britain where his continued criminal activities got him caught in 1968. The most famous member was Ronnie Briggs. Briggs was caught early, but broke out of prison after fifteen months. He went to France and underwent plastic surgery to change his appearance. He settled in Brazil which had no extradition treaty with England and he had a Brazilian son which gave him immunity. Briggs lived openly, flaunting his freedom. He eventually returned home due to poor health in 2001 at age 71 and voluntarily went back to prison.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Train_Robbery_(1963)
https://www.postalmuseum.org/blog/10-interesting-facts-about-the-great-train-robbery/
https://www.history.com/news/50-years-on-looking-back-at-the-great-train-robbery
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