please empty your brain below
South Kenton, Dollis Hill and Northwick Park have similar layouts and are all in the same borough despite being on different lines.

Sprout Eater | 04.06.24 - 7:14 a.m. | #

So presumably platforms 5 and 6 at Wembley Central no longer even go through the charade of them opening the door hourly.

Kirk | 04.06.24 - 8:08 a.m. | #

I was puzzled by the Wembley Central comment implying that the only train service is Southern; but maybe the "only" is misplaced as there are also Overground trains to Euston and Watford Junction.

Ian | 04.06.24 - 8:11 a.m. | #

The buildings on the car park side of Harrow & Wealdstone station (the other side from where your picture was taken) are the oldest station buildings still in use in London, having opened in 1837. (Deptford station was opened the previous year, but has been completely rebuilt twice, in 1926 and 2012)
The station has been enlarged over the years as the railway has expanded from two tracks to six - the Underground uses the original two tracks.

Timbo | 04.06.24 - 8:12 a.m. | #

Kirk - platforms 5 and 6 are used for the hourly Southern trains, so we are kept behind a flimsy barrier until it's safe to descend (ie the non-stopping trains have whooshed past)

Lucy Garden | 04.06.24 - 8:37 a.m. | #

The first thing I noticed from your photos of North Wembley and Kenton is the lack of exterior roundels. It had me wondering how many other tube and Overground stations have signposts at a minimum.

spanakopita | 04.06.24 - 8:42 a.m. | #

Lucy: I’d forgotten the fast lines were in the middle!

Kirk | 04.06.24 - 8:49 a.m. | #

There are roundels outside North Wembley but they’re not in the photo.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 04.06.24 - 8:50 a.m. | #

Kirk - there are very fast trains using the central tracks but they also have pretty fast non-stopping trains using the tracks alongside platforms 5 and 6. There are frequent announcements telling us to stand back behind the yellow line because the next train is 'non-stopping' but they usually prefer to keep us off the platform completely, as the risk of being whooshed onto the track is non-negligible. Which means a last-minute scurry down to the platform just in time.

Lucy Garden | 04.06.24 - 9:04 a.m. | #

The Stanmore branch opened in 1932 and was built by the Metropolitan Railway, it was transferred to the Bakerloo Line in 1939.

dg writes: tweaked, thanks.

The history of the Bakerloo Line extension to Watford is tied up with the London North Western Railway's suburban electrification. Seeking alternatives to its Euston terminus, the LNWR helped to finance the Bakerloo line extension to Queens Park and actually owned some of the rolling stock.

The final day of Bakerloo Line trains at Watford was Friday 24th September 1982. That morning the four southbound trains operated as usual - but the evening northbound trains did not return.

Julian Walker | 04.06.24 - 9:29 a.m. | #

Stonebridge Park always seemed like a terminus chosen for operational convenience, rather than a logical one based on passenger demand. Harrow and Wealdstone and especially Wembley Central both have decent passenger numbers.

Mikey C | 04.06.24 - 10:04 a.m. | #

The sloggy H9 goes past my house.

At Kenton there was an identical building to the station diagonally opposite which for years housed a lovely model shop (railways, planes etc). I think it's now an estate agent and all that remains of the original facade is the roof!

I think the Stanmore branch went from H&W as there is a track-like footbath connecting them.

Cornish Cockney | 04.06.24 - 10:27 a.m. | #

UFO at Stonebridge Park?

mikeH | 04.06.24 - 10:42 a.m. | #

I took the risk of looking at Wikipedia, according to them the Bakerloo depot at Stonebridge Park was all 1938 stock, but the cuts of 1982 released 1959 stock to replace them, these started entering service in December.

Remember the Watford trains still ran after Stonebridge Park opened.

Could you run 1959 stock wherever the 1938 stock had gone, I assume the Watford trains stabled at Croxley, apart from frequency cuts, was there some other issue that meant that it wasn't worth the faff to modify anything for a handful of peak hour journeys.

Still Anon | 04.06.24 - 10:45 a.m. | #

I like South Kenton for some reason

PVR | 04.06.24 - 11:43 a.m. | #

At least one 1972 stock train made it to Watford Junction in the short period they operated the Bakerloo line in the late 1970s

Cornish Cockney - There were two separate Stanmore branches - the one that still exists was built by the Metropolitan Railway in 1932 - now part of the Jubilee Line, but was Bakerloo from 1939 to 1979

The older one ran from Harrow & Wealdstone and operated between 1890 and 1964, although from 1952 passenger services only ran as far as the intermediate station at Belmont. It was never electrified.

There was no connection between the two lines, whose termini were about half a mile apart.

Timbo | 04.06.24 - 11:44 a.m. | #

cornishcockney - the model shop was called Puffers and sold only model railways. The chap that owned the shop, Chris, also owned one in Pickering, Yorkshire, which was also called Puffers. He also owned (or part owned) a real steam engine on the NYMR. The Kenton shop closed but he kept the shop open in Pickering but I think that has now closed too.

I know this as for many years my late father was Puffers accountant and he was very friendly with the owner Chris. One summer we went up to the NYMR and helped with the restoration of the the real size engine! Health and safety would have had a nightmare as I climbed all over the engine with a paint brush in hand painting various parts that Chris couldn't quite get to. Great days.

Simon | 04.06.24 - 11:57 a.m. | #

Britain's worst peacetime rail crash happened at Harrow & Wealdstone on 8th October 1952. The wreckage brought down the middle section of the station footbridge.

All available tradesmen from the wider area were called in to help clear the terrible wreckage. My dad worked as a welder for the British Oxygen Company at Wembley at the time and had to help cut up the carriages for removal.

If you know where to look, there are subtle differences in the bolts that hold the footbridge together, over its re-constructed section, to the present day.

Petras409 | 04.06.24 - 3:57 p.m. | #

THank you for directing me to your blog from your North Wembely image on Flickr.

This was the nearest station to GEC Hirst Research Centre, as a student I worked there. THe centre is now removed, the whole site. Main building rather nice 1920s style.

Simon Marshall | 04.06.24 - 5:33 p.m. | #

South Kenton reminds me of Carpenders Park further up the line. Both a bit bleak!

Wheels | 04.06.24 - 6:22 p.m. | #

i presume you walked from Kenton to H&W via the suburban roads on the left of the tracks. you would have been much better off going up Carlton Avenue (which isn't an Avenue) to the right hand side of the Travellers Rest and into then through Kenton Recreation Ground past the new BMX circuit (grandly named Harrow Pump Track")then hang a right at the Council depot into Kenmore avenue then left at the moini roundabout to Christchuch Ave you would then have passed under what had been the bridge for the H&W to Stanmore Branch the old line now being used as the Belmont Trail. pass the Leisure Centre and then right into Masons Avenue and thence to the station. still a bit dreary but with some more interesting things to pass ( including the factory where Waitrose's own brand pizzas are made)

peewit | 04.06.24 - 7:16 p.m. | #

Kenton is not roundelless.The Underground and Overground roundels are on the north side of the bridge directly opposite the station although obscured from certain angles by trees.

Nick | 07.06.24 - 10:10 a.m. | #











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