I've just seen them in magazines but there are some old configurations of sleeper coaches ( from the 1950's) that seem to offer higher efficency that the modern day Viewliner sleeper cars. In the Summer 2008 edition of Classic Trains magazine they ran an entire issue on Pullman and on sleeper cars in general. All configurations of sleeper cars were discussed but the one that caught my eye were the cars with what they called Single bedrooms and Duplex Roomettes. These rooms or roomettes were staggered one high and one low, such that part of each room was below or above an adjacent one. Maximum space utilization was achieved and I believe that each room had a comode/sink. . These were single high cars like on the Viewliners but they did feature high and low rooms with a few steps to reach the upper rooms. In some NYC slumber coaches up to 26 of these could be put in one lightweight car. I just wonder why this old configuration was abandoned in favor of what we now have today.
The Crescent used Slumbercoaches 25-30 years ago. My brother and sister-in-law rode in one overnight from NYP to NOL and said it was similar to old Pullman heavyweights with upper and lower berths at night, and coach-like seating during the day. They had paid for a bedroom, but due to a hurricane-caused service interruption and equipment shortage, the Heritage sleeper to which they were assigned had been replaced with a Slumbercoach. They felt short-changed because the berths were very cramped for dressing/undressing, daytime seating had no privacy, and they were offered no re-imbursement. It was about this same time that Amtrak got rid of Slumbercoaches.
My one quick thought as I rush out the door is that the big problem is that they did not get a reimbursement. I think something fell through the cracks. They were supposed to be reimbursed.
As to being cramped, well, yes that is sort of the point. It offered broom closet space but-----at broom closet prices. That is meant to make it compensate.
Slumbercoaches lasted sometime after that, on into the Amtrak era. Many people did like them, at least if they delberately chose to ride in a small space but at a small cost.
Again,they should have been compensated just as I was last summer when all the sleepers bummed out and I had to ride coach on the Crescent from ATL to WAS.