You probably know that The Shining was not filmed at a hotel in Colorado but at the Banff Hotel in Alberta (1888, 764 rooms).

But did you know that the Banff Hotel, okay, the Banff Springs Hotel was one of many, part of Canada's Grand Railway Hotels? The idea for railway owners in the mid-late 1800's was to give passengers five-star stops along their loonnngggg transcontinental routes from Montreal to Vancouver. It was an idea of genius and it birthed some jaw-dropping hotels.

Prince of Wales (1927), Waterton, Alberta.                       

Not bad, huh?

The railroad would drop you off right in front of your hotel! Glacier House in British Columbia, with Illecillewaet Glacier in background, shown in 1909. 

There's the choo-choo.

Glacier House closed in 1925, "the rationale is confusing.", (perhaps because the same two sisters owned Glacier House and Mount Stephen House below?) and was demolished in 1929.

Mount Stephen House (guess the name of the mountain in the background), 1885-1963.

The Royal York, Toronto (1929), with Union Station in front, is the largest of the Grand Railway Hotels with 1,363 rooms!

                         Le Château Frontenac (1893), has 611 rooms and is the symbol of Quebec City. Many of the hotels were built in a neo-chateau or chateauesque style.

The Jasper Park Lodge (1915) is the northernmost of the hotels.

The railways sometimes made use of the abundant wood building material at hand. Unfortunately, that led to damage or destruction by fire of several of the hotels. The Banff was badly damaged in 1924, the Lake Louise in 1926. The Jasper Park burned down in 1952 and was rebuilt in 1953. It has 446 rooms today.

                                               The Bessborough, Saskatoon (1935) 225 rooms.

There were thirty-nine Grand Railway Hotels built. Twenty-three survive. Of the sixteen which didn't, fire did some of them in, the automobile and the airplane did most others and for some "the rationale is confusing"