Does "sleeper car" mean you're getting a bed, or just that you're riding in that car but maybe in a seat? I'm not familiar with train travel, sorry.

Yes. It means you get a bed. Even most people who ride Amtrak regularly aren't familiar with them. (I've never actually seen one on Amtrak in person.) They're only on long distance trains.

https://www.amtrak.com/onboard-the-train-sleeping-accommodat...

Now you're just pulling my leg...

Here's a recent article that I found that describes the sleeping cars in detail: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/03/20/magazine/trai...

That’s a pretty interesting article—I can think of a site where you can share that, people might like it.

You get seats in a cabin that convert into bed(s).

Coach/economy/steerage means you spend the night in your seat. Sleeper means you get to sleep (in a bed).

But you get a whole 'room' to yourself for that price or just get bunk in a room with a bunch of other people.

The sleepers are all individual rooms of some description with 1-2 beds. There are some larger up to 4 adults. There are no hostel style bunk cars on trains. You're either sleeping in seats or in a room.

https://www.amtrakvacations.com/blog/3-important-things-to-k... (just googling 'amtrak sleeper' gets you this info!)

Canada's Via Rail trains have hostel-style bunk beds, called berths, double-stacked on both sides of the corridor, with a heavy curtain covering them. During the day they are converted into open compartments with couch-style seating.

Then $1000 doesn't seem that expensive really, especially if that includes in-room shower and toilet

Common showers, but this wasn't a problem at all for us.

The NY<->Chicago line had toilets in the compartment - but I mean in the compartment, not a separate bathroom. So not so great.

The California Zephyr (Chicago<->SF) has common toilets. The one in our sleeper car was broken for the whole trip, for which Amtrak only gave us the slightest nod of recognition.

There are three in every sleeper car, so the failure of one is not a huge problem.

In the case of Amtrak, I believe they're all private. (By contrast when I took an overnight train in China a few years back it was a shared bunkroom though there were probably different options available.)