Remembering America's Last Train Holdup -- on the Princeton Dinky Line

Princeton, NJ – Editor’s note: As you might notice (or hear) if you happen to walk down Prospect Avenue near the university campus this Saturday or Sunday, this is Houseparties Weekend, the moment when regular classes have ended and before final exams have started – the perfect moment for the undergraduate eating clubs to throw parties outdoors on their spacious lawns during the days and indoors at night.

The Houseparties tradition hasn’t changed much in the last 60 years, and probably not even in the last 100 years. For all that tradition, there has never been a Houseparties event like the one that unfolded more than 60 years ago. Our correspondent, a member of Princeton’s Class of 1968, filed this report:

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On Friday, the 3rd of May, 1963 , Houseparties Weekend, one of the best college capers of all time took place in town.

The one and only George Bunn, a senior and prankster extraordinaire, along with two of his roommates, went out to Route 1, rented three horses, and the rest is history.

They saddled up, bandannas covering their faces, and headed for the PJ&B tracks fairly near the Dinky station in town. George was “packing,” having a pistol, loaded with blanks, at the ready. The trio positioned the mounts across the tracks as the Dinky approached.

Shots were fired; the startled conductor eased to a stop. By the time the desperados dismounted and climbed aboard, the conductor had his hands in the air, and passengers were proffering watches and wallets. But Bunn and his mates ignored the loot, instead looking for just the right “dates” for the day.  Once they found women who looked game for adventure, they and the “hostages” mounted up, and galloped toward the clubs on Prospect, already in full swing ushering in that loveliest weekend of the year.

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By then, though, sirens were heard all over town, and George et al, having second thoughts of staying around basking in admiration, gallantly deposited the ladies at the clubs where they were expected, and high-tailed it back to the Brunswick Pike to stable the steeds. The horses were frothing by the time they were back in the corral, probably wondering just what-in-the-hell had occurred.

Robbing the Dinky was a federal offense, but the heist was never prosecuted. As for the legendary George Bunn, the last anyone heard, he was a partner at a white shoe law firm in New York.

Those who might dismiss this as “stuff and nonsense” need only stroll on the grass between the Dinky Bar & Kitchen and Roots, two dining venues fashioned out of the former Dinky train ticket office and the freight storage room. There are several steel plates in the ground, one of which commemorates that glorious event. The raised letters read: 1963 The Great Dinky Robbery Is Carried Out By Princeton University Students On Horseback

The Princeton Alumni Council’s Princetoniana Museum has a reference to what it calls “last train holdup in America.” It offers as evidence a grainy two-minute film clip from a previously unseen documentary.

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