Looks like his first post was saying he was in the 421 sleeper before it was detached and left behind.
I was wondering when a sleeper is abandoned en route do any staff give up compartments or are downgrades to coach reserved for customers only?
A number of years ago, I was on a 21 sleeper that derailed (ice) in St. Louis. First, the plan was to put us "displaced people" in the transdorm (we were moved to the empty dining car to sit while things were figured out). Then that was not approved and there weren't enough open rooms. Then we were told they would leave the "empty" coach car on the end of the train and we could go there and at least stretch out and be in a lower-density car. Then, before we left St. Louis - so it was only about an hour - the crew came back and said no, they had to remove the empty coach, we'd have to go into the regular coaches.
no help was given us in finding an open seat or moving our luggage. Had a woman not moved her sleeping children from a pair of seats (she and her husband were in the "four seats" at the front of the car but had let the kids move to the pair of seats behind them), I'd not have found a seat - I was not willing to wake someone up at 2 am and ask them to sit up so I could have the seat next to them.
all in all, it was a miserable trip - we were 9 hours late getting in to Mineola. Fortunately there was a room at the Best Western there, I was so exhausted it would not have been safe for me to make the 2 hour drive home.
I was mostly annoyed at how we got ****** around - first told "oh, we'll try to round up enough empty rooms" then "well, you can go into the empty coach car" and then "we leave in 20 minutes, get yourself and your stuff into one of the other coaches, good luck finding a seat"
