Even though there are many fast modes of transportation in Minecraft nowadays, the original rail system is still worth a look! It’s all in the name — minecarts and rails are just integral to Minecraft. Over time, a lot has changed, with new blocks added and interesting Redstone mechanisms discovered. If you prefer to play Minecraft the traditional way, a train station or subway is a must. So today, let’s take a closer look at how the different rails and minecarts interact and what you can build with them.
Overview of All Minecarts in Minecraft
Minecarts were the first real mode of transportation introduced in Minecraft. They strongly adhere to the original idea of Minecraft, which is to search caves for resources and then carry them out using large iron boxes. Nowadays, there are even seven different minecarts, five of which you can use in regular gameplay. While some are less practical, others can significantly enhance your gameplay!
Standard Minecart: A minecart made from five iron ingots is one of the best means of transport in Minecraft, as long as you have a good rail system. It can be moved by pressing forward to gain momentum. Not only can you ride in it, but so can other animals and monsters! They are particularly useful if you want to transport villagers. You can exit by crouching or by destroying the minecart.
Chest Minecart: Minecarts with a chest can be found directly in the game, specifically in mineshafts. You can use them to expand your inventory and transport blocks over long distances. The chest minecart can be loaded and unloaded with a hopper, which is also practical. You can use the minecart to transport blocks like cobblestone or dirt and automatically sort them.
Furnace Minecart: A minecart with an integrated furnace may look strange at first, but it can be quite useful. Once coal or charcoal is burned, the furnace minecart functions like a locomotive. It can move itself and push other minecarts in front of it. This allows you to transport a longer line of minecarts without your help.
Hopper Minecart: For technical players, the hopper minecart is probably the most interesting variation. We’ve also used it in some automatic farms because it can pull items through a solid block, unlike the regular hopper. Additionally, they are well-suited for large storage halls and automatic sorting systems.
TNT Minecart: If this minecart passes over an activated rail or is triggered by vibrations or external triggers, it explodes after four seconds. The explosion is slightly larger than regular TNT, but it does cost some iron.
Spawner Minecart: This minecart is only obtainable via command and functions like a moving spawner. However, it’s only useful in specific cases, such as for adventure maps.
Command Block Minecart: Command blocks are a very complicated affair and are only useful for technically savvy Minecraft players. They also exist in minecart form to time specific inputs. However, these applications are very specific and not relevant for survival.
Types of Rails in Minecraft and Their Applications
Without the right rails, even the best minecart is useless. There are four different types you can work with. However, these require a fair amount of resources, including gold and iron. You can find rails in abandoned mineshafts, so always take some with you!
Rail: Rails can be laid normally and, unlike the following three variations, can also turn corners or ascend blocks. They are the foundation of any rail system. Now, you can also lay rails underwater.
Powered Rail: In addition to regular rails, you’ll need a lot of powered rails because they give you a boost. However, they require Redstone and gold and cannot be found in the world. They are activated by a Redstone signal and push a minecart. An unpowered powered rail, however, acts as a stopper.
Detector Rail: You can think of this rail as a type of pressure plate (which is also used in the crafting recipe). When a minecart passes over it, the detector rail briefly activates. This can be used in combination with the aforementioned powered rails, saving you Redstone torches or Redstone blocks. It can also activate adjacent blocks or mechanisms connected to the rail with Redstone dust.
Activator Rail: This type of rail isn’t necessarily practical, but it can eject you from the minecart so you don’t have to exit manually. Additionally, it can open and close a hopper minecart and activate a TNT minecart.
Building Ideas for an Effective Rail System in Minecraft
Finally, let’s look at how you can implement these systems into a monorail. For this, we need a starting point and an endpoint, and of course, the rails in between.
You can use the starter and stopper universally. We’ve taken inspiration from YouTuber Pixlriffs for the design. At the very end, we use a cactus on sand with a slab above it. This dismantles the minecart. Under the rails, there’s a hopper leading into a dropper. In front of the dropper comes a powered rail, then an activator rail, followed by a regular rail, and finally a detector rail. Between the detector rail and the activator rail, we build in a delay so that it ejects us from the minecart in time. With two buttons next to the dropper and the powered rail, you can then set off.
To avoid losing momentum over long distances, you should lay powered rails at intervals. The best setup is a powered rail followed by four regular rails. You can also add a detector rail to automatically activate the rails. This keeps your speed constant. If you don’t have enough gold, you can also lay longer stretches of regular rails with the occasional powered rail in between.
Conclusion
As fun as an Elytra can be, a classic rail system is also a wonderful means of transport in Minecraft. Nowadays, there are many great minecarts and rails, allowing you to automate various tasks. If you rent your own Minecraft server from us, you can build a fantastic subway system with your friends! This allows you to quickly cover long distances and build some amazing landmarks along the way.
