cbrailways
Western Thunderer
Once again a hurried note. Met era Rickmansworth letter prefix was K [came up in my discussions of your pictures with a colleague last weekend]. The picture clue is signal J68 which is the starter from Harrow-on-the-Hill old Down platform 1, now platform 2 SB, and J signal box was immediately North of Harrow-on-the-Hill platforms, I think between the 'main' Up line and the Down 'local'/Uxbridge line. There was in Met times a small siding just ahead of the platform trailing to the left and I get an impression from the picture of some track rearrangement going on or already happened. Layout changed with the rebuilding of the station and 1949? re-signalling. The train in the image is for Marylebone, entering what is now platform 3 and is coming into the shade of the new station bridge and buildings.
With more time, dates could be clarified and there's likely to be papers on the resignalling, and all this may help with dating the image.
In the left background haze can be seen a distinctive building [now gone] that I remember from my schooldays journeys when changing trains at Harrow. It stood on the junction of College Road and Headstone Road and at street level there was a model shop, mainly of the ships and aircraft sort.
Yes. Agreed. Acording to my MET signalling books, J68 is the Down LNER Platform Starting at Harrow. The siding to the left heads into the sub-station compound.