Mail train robbery in 1989?

[White shadow]

Except..... Not the one I'm sure you all first thought of.

I am looking into buying a model of an MLV class 419. My mate told me I should paint it Royal Mail livery and stage a mock up of it being robbed.

I was puzzled by this, I'm well aware of the famous mr Biggs and his crew, but I had never heard of an mlv Royal Mail train being robbed.

Apparently (according to my mate) it happened in 1989 and he thinks it was a Brighton - London bridge service, but that's all he can tell me.

I've scanned google but just keep coming up against the better known train robbery!!.... Can anyone provide more details on the 1989 robbery and if possible links to websites please.

Thanks

 

[sprinterguy]

This webpage has the following to say:

http://www.bloodandcustard.com/mlv001.html
The ‘Great’ MLV Robbery
Due to increasing use on mail trains, MLV numbers 9001-5/7/9 were allocated to the ‘Parcels Sector’ under the BR ‘sectorisation’ scheme and three were repainted into Royal Mail red livery, the first 9004 in October 1988 followed by 9009 and 9001 soon after. However, 9004 was held up and robbed near Merstham whilst working a Brighton to London Bridge mail train on 8th March 1989 and a decision to repaint the red livery units into NSE livery to make them less conspicuous was taken shortly after; so they lost this distinctive livery.

The following webpage also says something similar:
http://www.semgonline.com/gallery/class419_02.html