On the run with my Great Train Robbery dad..

Lazing on a sun lounger with his dad in Mexico in 1966, Nick Reynolds was a young lad who had no inkling the high life they were living was so precarious.

- DAN WARBURTON

He thought their years away from Britain were just a big adventure. And he believed the strange things he noticed were down to his father being a heroic spy like James Bond.

In fact, Nick's dad Bruce Reynolds was one of the world's most wanted men because he had masterminded the Great Train Robbery.

Now - exactly 60 years after the raid on August 8, 1963 - Nick has spoken about their life of luxury on the run and has released letters his dad sent him from jail following his capture after five years as a fugitive.

The pair discussed Nick's schoolwork and being "kind" to his mum.

After reading his son's school report, Bruce writes: "I'm proud of you." Nick, who is an artist and musician, said: "I used to go and see my dad in prison. He'd send me these amazing letters which was a way of keeping this amazing bond that we had.

"We were so close because I had seen more of him in those years on the run than most kids get to spend with their dad up to their teens.

"When he was jailed I went to prisons all over the country.

"We used to travel five-and-a-half hours to get to Durham prison. It was like a horrible old castle... really scary.

I remember the screw's boots clanking on the floor and the keys rattling." Bruce was the brains behind the robbery which resulted in the crooks making off with £2.6million in cash - worth about £50m in today's money.

The gang forced the Glasgow to London mail train to stop in the early hours in Ledburn, Bucks.

They then overpowered the driver and moved bags of cash to a lorry.

Train driver Jack Mills was whacked on the head with an iron bar. He never recovered, and died in 1970 aged 64.

Police launched a huge hunt for the gang of 15 men. By the end of 1964, most of them had been jailed.