Star ratings of hotels indicate Peter’s opinion, not necessarily the official tourist ratings.
Generally speaking, the CN put their crews into better places than the CP did.
In Prince Rupert, BC, the hotels were the Crest and the Inn on the Harbour. He considered both good and clean and 3-stars.
In Vancouver, the crews, other than Peter, originally stayed in a hotel in Skid Row. When trouble occurred there, they moved into a better hotel, City Centre Motel, on Main Street, until a killing occurred. Eventually, they stayed at a Holiday Inn on Broadway.
in Prince George, BC, in 1964, he stayed once at the National Hotel. He did not like this hotel and gave it a rating of only 1½-stars. It was a noisy place. He had just gone to sleep when he heard a pecking at his window. He saw a woman standing outside it. She had come up the back steps to Peter’s room. She was calling for her boyfriend, who was a waiter on the train. When he assured her that her friend was not there, she left.
In Jasper, AB, the Athabaska Hotel was located near the station and rated 3-stars. The Whistler Hotel was rated 4-stars, He also stayed at a private boarding house with railroad people who lived by the railroad. All three of these places were good. He rated the Sawridge Inn at east end of the town at 2-stars. Young people worked there and the hotel was often noisy.
In Edmonton, he stayed at the CN Marlborough Hotel.
In Calgary, the Best Western Motel, located downtown, and the Holiday Inn were rated 3-stars. He stayed at CP Palliser Hotel, 5-stars, only when accompanying royalty. All places were good.
In Winnipeg, crews were put into third-rate hotels in the North End. This was not a good district of the city. Porters stayed in big bunk houses of forty men to a house. The men were quite rowdy. Peter’s crew stayed at the CP Royal Alexandra until one drunk member ran in the halls naked. Another place was the Brunswick Hotel on Main St. In the earlier days before the time of the CN Fort Garry, he stayed at the Empire Hotel near the CN Station. It was all right, but he could hear the trains all day. He also stayed at the Mount Royal Hotel, rated 3-stars, located across the street from the CP Station.
In Sudbury, ON, he stayed in spotless boarding houses, where he was treated like part of the family.
In Toronto, Peter stayed at the CP Royal York only when he was looking after royalty and other high profile passengers.
In Ottawa, he stayed numerous times at good boarding houses.
In Montreal, the crews stayed at the Queen’s Hotel, a respectable place. On a couple of occasions, Peter stayed at the CN Queen Elizabeth Hotel when he was escorting royalty. The restaurant in CP Windsor Station was good.
In Detroit, he stayed at the Hotel Mercury, rated 4-stars, and was treated well.
There was seldom a private room until women were hired. They would not sleep where several occupied a room. This created an improvement in accommodations for the men as they had to be treated the same as women
In travelling between Winnipeg and Vancouver, he had no stopovers. However, on all runs, the head-end crew changed after about 400 miles or eight hours. As a safety factor, they had to stop the train when their time had been completed and wait for a relief engineer.
