How authentic was this?

[ian1944]

BBC's recent two-part train robbery programmes showed a couple of what seemed to me to be odd touches in the reconstruction. The train, supposedly on the WCML was running on the right-hand line, and the advance signal was at track level. Could these actually have been the case in 1963?

 

[Searle]

I *think* it was filmed at the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway, which would explain why there were discrepancies. I don't actually know if the advance signal would have been at ground level though on the WCML back then!

 

[Harbon 1]

It wasn't only the signals that were a bit odd in the reconstruction

 

[David Barrett]

It was indeed filmed at the K.& W.V.R. but I was not too impressed. Even now I still think that the 15 miniutes or so taken up by the actual crime in the 1967 film "Robbery", featuring a young Robert Powell as the Second Man, takes some beating although for this the makers apparently had the luxury of a section of then recently closed line (between Rugby and Peterborough I understand), rolling stock and B.R. Crews for a fortnight.

 

[Taunton]

There has been a longstanding kick-back by the rail industry against the glamorising of the Great Train Robbery by the media, after the crippling injuries the gang did on loco driver Jack Mills. I believe the 1980s film about the robbery was never shown in any cinema in Crewe, the driver's home town.

It would be good if this was not forgotten.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

It would probably help if the media today bothered to remember that the "Great" tag refers to the size of the robbery, not anything to do with any supposed status or degree of planning.


That is an important distinction which appears to be completely overlooked today.

 

[t o m]

BBC's recent two-part train robbery programmes showed a couple of what seemed to me to be odd touches in the reconstruction. The train, supposedly on the WCML was running on the right-hand line, and the advance signal was at track level. Could these actually have been the case in 1963?

I too noticed this. It was also annoying how they referred to the yellow light as amber but I suppose that's just being picky.

The part where they drove a loco out a depot, did that really happen?

It was indeed filmed at the K.& W.V.R. but I was not too impressed. Even now I still think that the 15 miniutes or so taken up by the actual crime in the 1967 film "Robbery", featuring a young Robert Powell as the Second Man, takes some beating although for this the makers apparently had the luxury of a section of then recently closed line (between Rugby and Peterborough I understand), rolling stock and B.R. Crews for a fortnight.

'Robbery' was filmed in Theddingworth, Leicestershire.

 

[plarailfan]

I too noticed this. It was also annoying how they referred to the yellow light as amber but I suppose that's just being picky.

The part where they drove a loco out a depot, did that really happen?



'Robbery' was filmed in Theddingworth, Leicestershire.

Sometime during the planning stages, the loco was said to have been started up, then driven along a siding at Euston Station, at around midnight.
Apparently, the robbers didn't know how to stop it and they jumped off the moving loco, which potentially could have caused a very nasty accident !
I wonder if it passed a red signal or two, before it ran out of momentum ?
I bet there were a few puzzled rail staff when they discovered the loco some distance away from where it had originally been stabled

 

[poshfan]

BBC's recent two-part train robbery programmes showed a couple of what seemed to me to be odd touches in the reconstruction. The train, supposedly on the WCML was running on the right-hand line, and the advance signal was at track level. Could these actually have been the case in 1963?

And also the film showed a double track line instead of 4 tracks. The robbers also said that the mail was the only train running that night which seems very unlikely.