The Great Train Robbery

[PeterB]

Absolutely nothing to do with birds but a good reason for a walk in the countryside on a crisp sunny day.

I live less than a mile from the Bridego Bridge (127) where the train was famously unloaded. I've driven and walked under it for years and we used to get European customers visiting our factory wanting to be taken there and get their picture taken. For some reason the Dutch were particularly fascinated with the place and I would have to take them there every time they visited.

This is a picture of bridge 127 taken today and the sign post. Network Rail taken now to calling it the "robbers bridge". There is no other sign as to it's historical significance.





I have lived in this area for all but the first 8 years of my life and I have never visited the point where the train was actually stopped. A long story cut short is that to stop the train the signals at Sears Crossing were made red by the robbers and the train stopped there, they uncoupled the first two carriages and drove the train up to Bridego Bridge where they unloaded the sacks of money into trucks on the road. The Sears Crossing bridge being only a farm access.

I've read many different accounts of events and there is one thing which varies from account to account, the precise location of the signals at the time. So I went up to the bridge at sears crossing today to see for myself as the various accounts put the distance from Bridego to the signals from 800 yards to 1 mile. There is a public footpath over the farm bridge at Sears Crossing.

This is the view looking south from the bridge.



There used to be a crossing here, a series of points which enabled the trains to cross over from the fast intercity lines to the slower local lines, this was Sears Crossing. The Lights the robbers used to fool the driver into stopping therefore must have been North of this crossing.

In the next picture, looking North towards Leighton Buzzard from the same bridge, there still are lights there, it's difficult to see in the picture, but about 8 gantrys down there is a signal gantry. This is almost precisely 1 mile from Bridego so some of the accounts are wrong or I have missed something.



continued....

[PeterB]

Another little mystery is on the sign for the farm bridge seen here.



They have numbered this bridge 129 but there is no 128, or evidence 128 ever existed. I wonder if they left numbers out occasionally.

Another couple of mysteries is that I have not been able to find out where the Sears name came from or for that Matter why 127 is called Bridego, there are no local farms, buildings or land marks bearing those names. More research is obviously needed.

[Little Sparrow]

Fascinating stuff Peter. I found this link about Bridge numbering but cannot see anything that suggests numbers were left out occasionally. Railway Structures

Good luck with the mysteries and update please as and when.

[Dean Driving Instructor]

Nice to see the up to date pictures. I think you are probably right re the location of the signals. Like u, I did find some of the accounts contradictory.

The following morning the train was run into the Aylesbury LMS branch platform at Cheddington for investigations.

[PeterB]

That reminds me, in America, some states number their highway (motorway) junctions by the miles they are from the start of the highway. This is a great system, as you know if you get on at Junction 32 and need to get off at exit 67, it's err, um, 7-2 plus 60-30, err, thirty something miles away.

Anyway, I've spent most of the evening reading about the robbery, fascinating. I hope I don't become one of those local historian types.

[PeterB]

Originally Posted by Dean Driving Instructor

The following morning the train was run into the Aylesbury LMS branch platform at Cheddington for investigations.

That, of course, went with Dr. Beeching.

A further nugget. The local magistrates court in Linslade (which was in Bucks as the time) where they were taken for due process, became a house shortly after (when it was moved to Beds) and my best mates wife grew up in that very house.