Berths on CPRR

From: "Malcolm Easton" mceaston@sbcglobal.net

I am trying to understand about the sleeping arrangements around 1885. The Helen Hunt Jackson narrative of 1878 implies that on CPRR if you didn't have a berth in a silver palace car then you had no berth but sat on a bench all night. Other narratives, perhaps dealing with other types of trains, describe a lesser class of sleeping arrangements in which the seats are converted to berths, and other berths swing down from the ceiling. Can someone clarify this?

—Malcolm Easton