thumb|upright=1.3|Advertisement for the 1896 play The Great Train Robbery, which inspired the [[The Great Train Robbery (1903 film)|1903 film of the same name]]

Since the invention of locomotives in the early 19th century, trains have often been the target of robbery, in which the goal is to steal money or other valuables. Train robbery was especially common during the 19th century and is commonly associated with gangs of outlaws in the American Old West. It has continued into the 21st century, with criminals usually targeting freight trains carrying commercial cargo, or targeting passengers of public transportation for their valuables.

History

Background

Prior to the development of railroads, stagecoach robbery was common. Especially in Europe and North America, stagecoaches and mail couriers were frequently targeted for their cargo. As coaches and horses were phased out in favor of trains, which could haul far more freight and passengers, so too did robbers adjust their targets.

Victorian England

Several major train robberies occurred in England in the mid-19th century. The Great Western Mail Robbery occurred in 1849. In two robberies on the Bristol and Exeter Railway, two passengers climbed from their carriage to the mail van and back. They were discovered at Bridgwater after the second robbery. One was Henry Poole, a former guard on the Great Western Railway, dismissed for misconduct (possibly on suspicion of another robbery); the other was Edward Nightingale, the son of George Nightingale, accused, but acquitted, of robbing the Dover mail coach in 1826, when two thieves had dressed in identical clothes to gain an alibi for the other. They were transported for 15 years. Henry was sent to Bermuda on the Sir Robert Seppings in December 1850 whilst Edward was transported to Fremantle on the Sea Park in January 1854.

On May 15, 1855, a train carrying gold departed London, England, for Boulogne, France, and was found upon arrival to be missing over £12,000 worth of gold and money. The incident became known as the Great Gold Robbery of 1855. Four men were arrested in 1856 for the crime.

American Old West

During the 19th and early 20th centuries, train robberies were frequent in the American Old West, where trains carrying valuable cargo, like payroll shipments, were a frequent target. These shipments would be guarded by an expressman whose duty was to protect the cargo of the "express car". Changing social and economic situations after the American Civil War led to the development of gangs and individuals who took up train robbery as a means of income. After the war, many soldiers were faced with little economic opportunity upon returning home, and train robbing required little specialized skill. Other robbers held the railroad companies in contempt, particularly those from the Midwest and West. The first post-Civil War robberies occurred in Indiana; Wells Fargo and American Express Company cars carrying money and other expensive materials were common targets.

Initially, trains were perceived to be largely impenetrable—especially when compared with the earlier stagecoach—and were often unguarded or only lightly guarded. Early trains passed through large stretches of rural landscape with little to no communication available, leaving them vulnerable to attack and hindering investigation and response by law enforcement. Early bandits were rarely caught. The sensationalization of these crimes in newspapers, dime novels, and Wild West shows added to the appeal for copycat and repeat crimes.

thumb|1873 train robbery by the [[James–Younger Gang near Adair, Iowa]]

Infamous train robbers from this era include Butch Cassidy, Bill Miner, and Jesse James. Jesse James is mistakenly thought to have completed the first successful train robbery in the American West when on July 21, 1873, the James–Younger Gang took US$3,000 from a Rock Island Railroad train after derailing it southwest of the town of Adair, Iowa. However, the first peacetime train robbery in the United States occurred on October 6, 1866, when robbers boarded an Ohio & Mississippi train shortly after it left Seymour, Indiana. They broke into one safe and tipped the other off the train before jumping off. The Pinkerton National Detective Agency later traced the crime to the Reno Gang. There was one earlier train robbery in May 1865, but because it was committed by armed guerrillas and occurred shortly after the end of the Civil War, it is not considered to be the first train robbery in the United States.

Train robberies peaked in the 1890s. Although they occurred in a wide variety of states, California, Missouri, Texas, and Oklahoma recorded the highest numbers. Notable robberies during this period include the Union Pacific Big Springs robbery in 1877, the Canyon Diablo Train Robbery in 1889, the Fairbank Train Robbery in 1900, and the Baxter's Curve Train Robbery in 1912.

Several factors contributed to the decline of train robberies around the turn of the 20th century and the decades following, although they did not stop entirely. Ruddell and Decker (2017) write, "train robberies were eliminated, in large part, due to making targets less attractive, increasing guardianship, and reducing offender motivation or in other words taking routine precaution". Law enforcement agencies and railroad companies, which once struggled to investigate crimes and arrest perpetrators, began creating or recruiting specialized task forces, such as the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. Southern Pacific and the Pinkertons pursued the gang for years and distributed 3.5 million leaflets worldwide for information, eventually apprehending the members. Train robbery had become obsolete by the 1930s in the United States, and many criminals began instead targeting banks.

The outlaw culture in the American Old West became romanticized in Hollywood's Western films, such as The Great Train Robbery in 1903.

thumb|Train Robbers' Bridge in Buckinghamshire, England, site of the [[Great Train Robbery (1963)|1963 Great Train Robbery]]

The Great Train Robbery of 1963, the UK's most infamous occurrence, occurred in Buckinghamshire in 1963. On April 8, a group of robbers targeted a Post Office train en route from Glasgow to London and stole over £2.3 million in parcels. Apprehended members of the gang were sentenced to a collective total of 307 years imprisonment.

21st century

Modern thieves often target train cars carrying cargo for large corporations, such as Walmart and Amazon;

A string of train robberies in India have targeted both cargo and passengers. On August 9, 2016, a group of robbers drilled a hole into the roof of a secure car aboard the Chennai–Salem Express and stole ₹57.8 million ($860,000; £570,000). The train had been transporting ₹342 crore from the Indian Overseas Bank to the Reserve Bank of India in Chennai. The Indian media dubbed it "the great train robbery". Since 2023, several instances of armed dacoits boarding trains and robbing money, mobile phones, and valuables from passengers have been reported aboard Indian passenger trains. Multiple people have been injured in these attacks.

In 2021, train robberies in Los Angeles resulted in hundreds of discarded packages being strewn across the tracks. Trains were targeted on a section of tracks that they must slow down on and that are easy to access. Thieves used bolt cutters to cut open the locks on shipping containers and took the packages inside. The dropped packages were then picked over by thieves as well as passerby. Union Pacific estimated that losses were in the millions from all the stolen merchandise. By late 2021, an average of 90 containers were broken into daily. The Los Angeles Police Department assembled the Train Burglary Task Force in response to the robberies.

Methods

The nature of train robbery varies. Cargo can be stolen from either a moving or stationary train in a variety of ways. Perpetrators of train robberies may work alone or in groups and might be committed by gangs or other organized crime. Sometimes, gangs might recruit local residents to partake in the robbery.

However, as was much more common historically but is still done today, robbers sometimes use more violent means of breaching a train. Some will obstruct or sabotage the railroad itself in an attempt to derail a moving train. Some use dynamite to damage the rails or train itself to gain entry. Since then, dozens of Westerns have depicted train robberies, including:

  • The Great K & A Train Robbery (1926)
  • Jesse James (1939), based on the life of the titular character
  • Whispering Smith (1948), starring Alan Ladd
  • Rage at Dawn (1955), starring Randolph Scott and Forrest Tucker
  • Man of the West (1958), starring Gary Cooper
  • Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford
  • The Wild Bunch (1969), starring William Holden
  • One More Train to Rob (1971), starring George Peppard
  • The Train Robbers (1973), starring John Wayne
  • The Missouri Breaks (1976), starring Jack Nicholson and Marlon Brando
  • The Grey Fox (1982), based on the life of Bill Miner
  • The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007), another biopic

In the 2018 video game Red Dead Redemption 2, train robberies are a source of income for the player. One of the game's cutscenes recreated the opening train robbery scene in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford shot-for-shot.

Other examples

Other notable train robberies in media include:

  • ' (1962) a Brazilian film which portrays the 1960
  • The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, film (1974), starring Walter Matthau
  • The 2009 remake, starring Denzel Washington and John Travolta
  • The First Great Train Robbery, film, (1979), starring Sean Connery
  • The Chase, novel by Clive Cussler
  • Tough Guys (1986) a comedy film about two elderly train robbers, starring Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster
  • Buster (film)
  • Money Train, film (1995), starring Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes
  • "The Train Job", an episode of the TV series Firefly that involved a train robbery
  • "Dead Freight", an episode of the TV series Breaking Bad in which methylamine is stolen from a train
  • Solo: A Star Wars Story, film (2018), includes a train heist scene
  • Marighella, Brazilian film by Wagner Moura, with Seu Jorge on the role of Marighella (2021)

See also

  • Bank robbery
  • Carjacking
  • Mail robbery
  • Package pilferage
  • Piracy
  • Rail sabotage
  • Steaming (crime)

References

Citations

Works cited

Further reading