LMS Route: Birmingham New Street to Nuneaton

Arley Colliery Sidings: mracs1072

Diesel locomotive D326 is seen on the diverted combined 16:20pm Euston to Blackpool - Holyhead service on Sunday 3rd May 1964. This locomotive became infamous as being involved in the Great Train Robbery. It hauled the 6:50pm Glasgow to Euston Royal Mail service on Wednesday 7 August 1963 to be robbed near Cheddington the following morning. The train consisted of 12 carriages and carried 72 Post Office staff who sorted mail. The mail was loaded on the train at Glasgow and also during station stops en-route, as well as from line side collection points where local post office staff would hang mail sacks on elevated track-side hooks which were caught by nets deployed by the on-board staff. Sorted mail on the train could also be dropped-off at the same time. This process of exchange allowed mail to be distributed locally without delaying the train with more frequent station stops. The second carriage behind the engine was known as the HVP (High Value Package) coach where registered mail was sorted and this contained valuables including large quantities of money, registered parcels and packages. Usually the value of these items would have been in the region of £300,000, but because there had been a Bank Holiday weekend in Scotland, the total on the day of the robbery was £2.6 million equal to about £172 million in 2011.

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