Great Train Robbery (1963) Great Train Robbery (1963) The Great Train Robbery was the robbery of £2.6 million from a Royal Mail train heading from Glasgow to London on the West Coast Main Line in the early hours of 8 August 1963, at Bridego Railway Bridge, Ledburn, near Mentmore in Buckinghamshire, England. After having tampered with the lineside signals in order to bring the train to a halt, a 15-strong gang of robbers led by Bruce Reynolds attacked the train. Other gang members included Gordon Goody, Buster Edwards, Charlie Wilson, Roy James, John Daly, Jimmy White, Ronnie Biggs, Tommy Wisbey, Jim Hussey, Bob Welch
The Great Train Robbery (novel) by a horse he had been flogging. The final line of the novel reads, "The money from the Great Train Robbery was never recovered." Crichton became aware of the story when lecturing at Cambridge University. He later read the transcripts of the court trial and started researching the historical period. The story is a fictionalised representation of the historical events that happened, although the setting can be considered quite accurate. The characters' names are changed in the novel; for example, the main protagonist William Pierce is changed to Edward Pierce and Edward Agar to Robert Agar. Crichton stated that he