Ronnie Biggs and that infamous red signal

Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs died yesterday. He was 84.

It's 50 years since a British Rail night mail train was stopped and robbed of over £2.4 milion, in today's money close to £40 million.

There was always something 'romantic' surrounding the robbery yet it was anything but romantic.

The loco driver of that train later died from injuries he received on the night.

The robbers stopped the train by tampering with the electric signal. 50 years ago railway signalling was far less sophisticated than today.

On an ordinary night the driver would have had a green signal at the particular location. On this occasion the robbers broke the green aspect and replaced it with a powerful red light, so the driver was obliged to stop his train.

Was there a distant signal? If so no one has ever spoken about it.

On modern railways that could not happen as the driver has an on board facility informing him of the aspect of the signal ahead. He or she is also in radio contact with rail traffic control.

German Rail no longer uses track signalling for the movement of its ICEs.The driver's on board computer informs him/her of what track condition is for the next 11 kilometres.