Minecarts How do they work?

Overview

My expirence with minecarts along with tips and suggestions.

About me

I’m running my game on Bleeding Edge patch in the first world with Conveyor Speed set to fast so some things might be different to you if you’re on a different patch/game mode.

Also im no english major so if you see any gramatical/ spelling errors please feel free to point and laugh at me them out in the comment section.

Why minecarts?

Sooner or later you’re going to have to bring up a lot of resources from 500+ levels below, running multiple conveyors/tubes that far down is very expensive and is still might not give the same throughput as Minecarts.

Advantages

• Much more easily scalable throughput.
  Just add more carts!
• Can be condenced to a single rail to save space.
• looks cool!
  Everybody loves train stations 😀

Disadvantages

• Expensive to setup rail.
• Very time consuming.
  Cant have one mismatched rail or you will lose items/carts like crazy.
  looking for organic rock might take some time.

Tracks

Currently there are 3 different types of tracks in game.

Track Straight

Best used horizontally, Minecarts can go in either direction on them.

Track Slope

Used to make ramps to go up or down

Track Corner

Used to turn or make turns look nice

Things to note
They don’t work vertically
Minecarts don’t like going straight up/down.

Orientation
Although Minecarts can go in either direction on a track most of the tracks have a green marking indicating which direction a Minecart will go should it happen to join/deploy on that track.

Visual connection

Minecarts will derail spewing out its contents if tracks are not connected right; the easiest way to tell is if it actually connects visually.

Turns

Currently you can use Straight Tracks to preform turns where you would use Corner Tracks. The benefit of using straight is that you can change the direction easily by pressing r instead of replacing a corner track.

Minecarts

Currently there are 3 different Minecarts in game.
Basic Minecart

Your starter Minecart, it holds 25 items and moves at a rather slow pace.

Fast Minecart

Holds the same amount as the basic but travels a bit faster.

Large Minecart

As fast as the basic but holds 50 items.

Things to note
Collisions
There are none, Minecarts do not collide with each other or the player so it’s possible to have hundreds of Minecarts using single rail.

Going up?
As stated above they do not like going straight up its best to use a ramp.

Going down?
Like above you’re going to want to use a ramp but be careful if you go too fast Minecarts will miss stations and at extreme speeds derail themselves.

Derailment
A minecart when derailed will be dropped one block ahead of the cart at its next intended block location.
The derailed cart does not change position as it falls.
The Derailed cart is not affected by its speed prior to derailment.

Minecart Depot

Used to only deploy Minecarts from attached storage hoppers

Things to note
Deploying
It can only deploy onto a straight track.

Visual
Although it looks like its 1×2 its actually only 1×1 so you can use the top of the depot to attach storage hoppers.

Don’t place Sideways

They don’t like that, It may also glitch out Minecart. But if you’re still going to try just remember that if it doesnt glitch it will deploy from the side facing upwards even if theres a hopper on it.

Glitched Minecart

Minecart load Station

Used to load Minecarts

Things to note
Orientation
Make sure it runs with the track.

Markings
Doesn’t actually matter? Minecarts will load from entering either direction and will exit the opposite way they entered.

Stats
Loads 3 Items/sec
Has a 1 item buffer
Holds empty/partially filled carts for 30 secs

Minecart Unload Station

Used to unload Minecarts

Things to note
Orientation
Make sure it runs with the track.

Markings
Doesn’t actually matter? Minecarts will load from entering either direction and will exit the opposite way they entered.

Stats
Unloads 3 Items/sec
Has a 1 Item buffer
Empty carts will not stop on them.

My Setup

So far i have found that
A) Going up minecarts are slow with the large minecart being the slowest and the fast being the fastest
B) Going Down the Fast Minecart can derail at high speed
C) When minecart de-rail they drop one block ahead of the track

So my setup will basicly be this
So basicly the minecart will be deployed onto the rail from the bottom where it will be loaded at the minecart loading station, Then will make its way up to the top to be unloaded then it will intentionally de-rail itself and fall down a designated shaft to be picked up by a hopper set to vacuume thats next to a minecart depot where it will be deployed on the track again.

I can also just intentionally de-ral the filled cart at the top into hoppers set to vaccume filter out the carts then either drop it down the shafts to the bottom again or matter move the carts to the bottom.