On the presumption that the Viewliner II order ever arrives (sigh), I think you'd probably be looking at two sleepers, the diner, two or three coaches, and the baggage car going to Dallas/Fort Worth and a sleeper, a bag-dorm, the cafe, and two or three coaches going to New Orleans. In particular, I think Texas is going to become your "backup transfer point" the next time Chicago goes to hell in a handbasket, especially if we ever get a Daily Sunset (since my best guess is that Amtrak would work to time a workable connection at DFW).
Of course, while I agree that a single sleeper is too little for this route, I also find the presence of only three sleepers on the Meteor to also be inadequate. Ditto three on the LSL and only two on the Crescent (I mean, c'mon...this is a train that required two sections at the holidays well into the 1970s and probably has one of the best "business timings" in the system for WAS-ATL). If nothing else, the fact that Amtrak seems to have gotten stuck calibrating sleeper capacity to about the 25th percentile in terms of demand (to ensure that equipment gets utilized and due to eternal funding shortages) is...shall we say, regrettable from many perspectives.
Of course, while I agree that a single sleeper is too little for this route, I also find the presence of only three sleepers on the Meteor to also be inadequate. Ditto three on the LSL and only two on the Crescent (I mean, c'mon...this is a train that required two sections at the holidays well into the 1970s and probably has one of the best "business timings" in the system for WAS-ATL). If nothing else, the fact that Amtrak seems to have gotten stuck calibrating sleeper capacity to about the 25th percentile in terms of demand (to ensure that equipment gets utilized and due to eternal funding shortages) is...shall we say, regrettable from many perspectives.