Station Masters House

Oddly, despite being brought up "GW is best" I don't know the answer to this...

However -
The GW was made up of many parts - from amalgamations, takeovers, Grouping and Nationalisation (some locations changed "ownership" - usually from LMR to WR or vice versa). The result is that, while the GW had its distinctive style - especially in paint schemes - it would depend on who the original railway company were and when a house was built. Probably at least as significant would be where in the country - and urban or rural.
All the Big Four and their predecessors liked to keep their staff financially tied to them (as was the way of their time) so a railway house would normally be tied to the job - similarly to an agricultural tied house. Due to politics BR left many railway houses empty - Labour saying that they were against being landlords and Conservative saying that the railway was a rail business not a property business. Disgraceful politics that left some fine buildings unused. Both were also extremely averse to selling the properties they owned - not just houses but all sorts of places being left empty/unused for decades.
The point of this general information is that a lot would depend on who/where/when/and "cultural climate".

Meanwhile, back at your question...
1. I don't recall ever seeing an RTR or kit model of any SM's house - and if there were one it would probably be generic - more likely "LMS".
2. In many cases accommodation would be likely to be the 1st floor of the main station building - keeping "on top of the job" - and immediately available to attend if needed.
3. If you are looking to occupy some layout space one thing to consider - with or without a house - would be gardening facilities around the station. This would usually be pre 1970s at the latest. Both resident staff and non resident would be allowed to use patches safely clear of the track - and, sometimes, unofficially near the track. This applied especially in the wartime years and subsequent years of rationing. Occasionally a station pig might be unofficially/discreetly kept. Chickens for both eggs and meat definitely kept... I had direct experience of chickens being kept in the late 70s. I also recall the GWR magazine having articles about horticultural prize winners.
As always with the railways "of yore" there is a whole range of activity surrounding the job.

Hope this helps



PS I've just recalled - Adrian Vaughan in one of his signalling memories books commented that many of the staff's houses gained a fresh coat of paint when there was any railway repainting being done. I seem to recall that the only non-useful colour was yellow for Distant signal levers.

An alternative space filler of character for the post war period would be prefab housing...

A look at Chris Leigh's "A Railway Modeller's Picture Library" shows two things. Firstly most of the GWR station buildings designed by Brunel, or following his style, were single-storey buildings with just the station facilities. It was only with the take-over of other lines, such as the Berks and Hants, that the GWR acquired two-storey or taller station buildings which might have house the stationmaster. Secondly the GWR did build stationmaster's houses; his book illustrates two, one at Adlestrop and one at Savernake (low level) - both differ significantly in style and both are now private residences.

This is the Adlestrop building - since Chris Leigh's photo album it has had a rear extension added:
River Evenlode near the former Adlestrop station

© Copyright Roger Davies and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
(Click on photo to go to the larger original on the Geograph website)

The Savernake one hasn't been photographed and added to the Geograph website, alas. A search on that site using the term 'Stationmaster' brought up 250+ photos, most of which were their houses, so may need further investigation. (Access to this site is free, by the way.)

Regards,
John