Page 173 - Once a copper 10 03 2020

£300,000, but because the previous weekend had been a UK Bank Holiday
weekend, the total on the day of the robbery was to be between £2.5 and
£3 million.

Stopping the train

Just after 3am on 8 August, the driver, 58-year old Jack Mills from Crewe,
stopped the train on the West Coast Main Line at a red signal light at Sears
Crossing, Ledburn, between Leighton Buzzard and Cheddington. The signal
had been tampered with by the robbers: they had covered the green light
and connected a battery to power the red light. The locomotive's second
crew member, known as the secondman or "fireman", was 26-year-old David
Whitby, also from Crewe. As a signal stop was unexpected at this time and
place, Whitby climbed down from the cab to call the signalman from a line-
side telephone, only to find the cables had been cut. As he returned to the
train he was overpowered by one of the robbers. Meanwhile, gang members
entered the engine cabin from both sides, and as Mills grappled with one
robber he was struck from behind by another with a cosh and rendered semi-
conscious.

The robbers now had to move the train to Bridego Bridge (now known as
Mentmore Bridge), approximately half a mile (800 m) further along the track,
where they planned to unload the money.

On the night, the gang's hired train driver (an acquaintance of Ronnie Biggs),
was unable to operate this newer type of locomotive. With no other
alternative available to them, it was quickly decided that Mills would have to
move the train to the stopping point near the bridge, which was indicated by
a white sheet stretched between poles on the track. When it became
obvious that the hired diver was not able to drive the train, he and Biggs were
sent to the waiting truck to help load the mail bags.

Removing the money

The robbers removed all but eight of the 128 sacks from the HVP carriage,
which they transferred in about 15–20 minutes to the waiting truck by forming
a human chain. The gang departed some 30 minutes after the robbery had
begun in their Austin Loadstar truck and, in an effort to mislead any potential
witnesses, they used two Land Rover vehicles, both of which had the
registration plates BMG 757A.

Getaway and planned clean-up

An essential element of the careful planning was to locate and secure a
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‘bolt-hole’ where the team would make for after the robbery. Here they
intended to stay for as long as it would take for the inevitable police activity