The station master (or stationmaster) was the person in charge of railway stations, in the United Kingdom and many other countries, before the modern age. He would manage the other station employees and would have responsibility for safety and the efficient running of the station. The term is still sometimes used in large stations, although it has generally been replaced by station manager.
Invariably, he would be provided with a substantial house and, in rural communities, would have significant social standing.
Notably in the Beeching cuts of the 1960s many small stations were closed and the station master's house, along with other railway property, sold off. Typically, these buildings retained their original name and in many communities the Station Master's House can still be found as a private dwelling or converted into a restaurant.
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Famous quotes containing the words station and/or master:
“How soon country people forget. When they fall in love with a city it is forever, and it is like forever. As though there never was a time when they didn’t love it. The minute they arrive at the train station or get off the ferry and glimpse the wide streets and the wasteful lamps lighting them, they know they are born for it. There, in a city, they are not so much new as themselves: their stronger, riskier selves.”
—Toni Morrison (b. 1931)
“Man was Cadaver’s masker, the harnessing mantle,
Windily master of man was the rotten fathom,
My ghost in his metal neptune
Forged in man’s mineral.
This was the god of beginning in the intricate seawhirl,
And my images roared and rose on heaven’s hill.”
—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)