Railroad from skull mountain to sandaria

https://i.servimg.com/u/f48/16/88/41/84/railro11.jpg

Here is the schematic for the railroad. It's intended to cut ridges and also allow access to a lot of land and resources between skull mountain and sandaria

I'm so excited that we're finally doing this!!!

I built Crystal Keep Station last night and joined it up with the existing rail line. It's definitely not my best work, but to do something more grand, we would probably need to build further from the keep. Are folks interested in a bigger station? Perhaps near the cactus compass?

Alex and I will build Sandarian Central Station on the ridge east of the Magestic Ridge Lodge. It's time!!!

https://i.servimg.com/u/f48/16/88/41/84/railro12.jpg

This image shows the original railroad schematic (in red) and the actual route it will now take (in blue). I originally misread the map and had planned it going up some steep cliffs which didn't make a lot of sense so I rerouted it. The new amended path should actually be a lot faster and still accesses all of the places we need it to be able to access. It will pitch sharply in only two locations. One you can see is in the middle of the straight stretch in the desert right where the sand is covered by snow in a little patch. It will probably need only one extra booster since it maintains its high derivative for only a short while. The other sharp pitch is as it ascends the snowy ridge. Fortunately for us, at the base of the snowy ridge are some very tall old trees, hidden from man's view since time began. Running the line upwards through the ancient foliage of these mystic trees will allow us to slope it up much more gently and I've plotted a path for it there. I'm not sure how you northerners would like to connect it to your pre-existing rail at the edge of the desert by the Dashmaster Flagship so I left that unplanned.

I've started work on a rail station near my slime dispenser and the ship. The station will be piston powered and allow the rider to select his departure direction, either towards Sandaria, or back to Skull Mtn.

Excellent!

Alex and I are going to lay the actual rail starting from Sandaria and working our way towards you guys as soon as we can find a time when we're both on. Oooh I can't wait.

Also, creepers make building a rail station a real pain. Maybe I should put up a dirt rampart to protect the construction site.

So, should we tear down Max's crazy rail and use it for parts?

Oh! and just a bit of my railroad design philosophy. I read that the most efficient track speed can be gained by placing a booster rail every 24 blocks, so I typically go 12 blocks, place two torches to either side of the track, go another 12 and place 1 torch and a redstone torch to power the booster. Of course, this assumes a flat track.

Here's a quick schematic



Also, I made the image in Minedraft I don't think the tool is being updated anymore, so it's missing a LOT of blocks.

Excellent thinking with your spacing of the booster blocks, Vinz! I love it! And I completely agree with the T shape of the elevated rail. It's perfect for keeping out the spiders

My thinking is, let's have the stem of the T be an occasional pylon rather than running continuously. It'll cut down on work considerably without sacrificing looks. Additionally, I already have the pylons placed and the rail line will run through several trees We can also cut the top of the sides off...as in make it a T instead of a Y, it'll save on stone and - like I said - in many places the rail is pretty elevated so the view will be nice, and, on the steep portion descending from the snowy ridge, we may even just want to go with a single block because the view will just be so rad.

I agree, the cobblestone should only rise above the 'T' shape when a red torch is needed.

Sounds fine by me. My original placement of the raised torch blocks and the support pillars was purely for aesthetic purposes. I also typically line the track with cobble half-steps between the torch blocks, again for aesthetics, but also to reduce the chance of hostile mobs spawning on the track itself as I believe they can't spawn on half blocks. But I'm totally cool with keeping things simple.

Just as a reminder, in case it comes up, a rail tunnel needs to have at least 3 blocks of height instead of just 2, or else the player will take suffocation damage.

I finished substantial construction of the rail station near Dash's ship last night. I still have some decorative touches to add, but it is otherwise ready to be linked up to the rail line.

While working on it, I realized that stations like these are fairly straightforward to build, but that creating an optional bypass is an entirely different matter. If everyone is okay with pausing at each station on the line for a moment to press a button before continuing on, I can easily add additional stops. If we want bypasses (i.e. ways to automatically continue past the station) things become more problematic. The options for bypasses are as follows:

Build a side-route that bypasses the station: These can be triggered by a lever to switch the track direction to the desired path. The trouble is, if you use a single lever, the track can be at a random setting at any given time, forcing you to be extra vigilant as you approach each bypass switch, or risk swerving onto the wrong path. Alternately, you can install two levers attached to a nand gate, when you hit the first lever, the track switches, then when you hit the second, it switches back. This can be tricky, because you have to successfully hit both levers to ensure the track returns to its default state. I've tried using buttons for this in my SSP world, but they are way too small to hit while moving, much less with the love that sometimes happens in SMP.

Build a rail power toggle: This would be a switch that would swap the state of the stations stop/launch rail from off to on, allowing a rider to zoom past on the same track. The same challenges of remembering to switch it back, and/or missing a toggle apply, potentially sending other riders whizzing past their desired stop. Also, the circuitry for the station is incredibly tight, which would make it very challenging to get a redstone line to the launch rail without mucking up other stuff.

Let me know what you think.

Also, I don't expect to build every station on quite so grand a scale as the first. Most will likely be more like wooden depots.

I think that the best option is for the carts to come to a stop in the station. Then you can pick up the cart and set yourself in motion on a different track if you want or just continue where you were going.

I think Alex is right. Let's have stops at major stations and keep major stations to only important areas.

But I also like your idea of having smaller stops at little attractions along the way with signs to let the user know where he is (as I easily get confused in the skull mountain area). What do you think of the idea of having a small handful of major stations in major areas (skull mountain, sandaria, the abandoned mineshaft to the north) but then having small "platform" stations sporadically sprinkled about, consisting of just a platform built around the track and a sign indicating the location, but no mandatory stop?

Okay, the rail link from Skull Mountain to the harbor is complete. Just hop in a cart and hit the button. The launch sequence at the big harbor station can be a bit buggy and will occasionally self destruct about 3 track sections. If that happens, just put them back and try again.

As of 12:30am, the Sandarian rail platform is fully connected to the rail station near the ship.

We ran out of rail just short of being able to make the grand handshake, however, finally completing the line. I think we need roughly 100 more rail, which will include powered rail. I think we have gold, I think iron is the main issue.

What's the status on the rail line between skull mountain and the rail station at the "naval yard?" Is it all mob-secure and ready to run?

Well, I was walking the track at night from the Crystal Keep Station, and was horribly mutilated by three spiders along the way.

So what I am saying is, it still needs to be mob-proofed. But so far I am digging it!

The track from crystal keep to the harbor is built, running and lit. It is, however, missing the cobble to complete the top of the "T" in many places. This cobble is what keeps the spiders from climbing up via the supports.

Also, I have quite a bit of iron I could donate to completing the rail. If we have a 100 segment gap, we should be able to close that with 42 iron bars built into rails.

On the subject of additional stations: Does the Sandaria stop have a push-button launcher? Also, have any of the railroad builders thought about additional stop locations along the line? I'd be happy to work on rigging those up once we decide where they are needed.

Sandarian station isn't built yet. I'm planning to do that today!

Tonite I'm planning on mining moderately deep and somewhat greedily, and will end up with phat stacks of cobblestone. If I'm feeling frisky I will work on finishing the T shape of the rail.

Sandarian station didn't get finished but I am making progress. Once I get my positioning, it should go very fast. I have all the materials I need.