Railroad hotels and reading rooms

The ATSF had a number of hotels along their extensive system, some notable as some not. Most of them were established earlt in the railroad's history, and were run by Fred Harvey, the ATSF subsidiary. They were usually at a crew change point of a major junction. Some hotels were part of stations. The station at La Junta was huge. It may have been a hotel as well. The beautiful hotel at Las Vegas (NM), the Castaneda, still stands, albeit empty. The Alvarado was a legendary hotel, and a popular gathering place for local business people and a favorite location for graduations, dances and weddings. It was torn down for 35 years. The beautiful hotel at Winslow, the La Posada, was designed by the famous architect Mary Colter, and has been carefully restored. Same with the Fray Marcos Hotel in Williams, by the Grand Canyon Ry. Many ATSF terminals had well-appointed reading rooms for train crews. The last of these was in Belen. Of course, the ATSF had a variety of well-designed stations, and fortunately many of them are still standing.

There were a few railroad-related hotels along the narrow gauges. The largest and notable as the La Veta in Gunnison, also the location of the D&RG depot for decades. The Pacific Hotel in Como is another one, and it still is in businesss, six decades after the last South Park train whistled off. The most gloriously seedy of them all was Foster's hotel-cafe-bar in Chama. Like most "fleabags" where crews were billeted, it was never owned by the railroad, but generations of railroaders bunked there.