
Downward sloped powered rails will add both the momentum from the rails and the momentum from going downhill to your cart.Ħ blocks up without additional boosting in Beta 1.5, 10 in Beta 1.6 Conversely, carts traveling down slopes gain momentum. However, if there is enough surplus momentum, carts will travel up slopes with ease. Tests show that climbing slopes impact momentum severely, thus the cart speed plummets fast. This implies that the momentum gained is smaller if the cart's speed is faster and vice versa. Tests show that putting several powered rails in a row has observable diminishing returns with each additional powered rail on how much farther a cart will travel. The speed of a cart which is boosted using Powered Rails is calculated to be at the maximum of 8 m/s, however the cart maintains an internal "momentum" value that keeps the cart at the maximum speed of 8 m/s until the excess momentum is depleted.Ī single powered rail on flat ground against a stop block gives an occupied cart enough momentum to travel 80 rail tiles on a flat surface, or 8 tiles for an unoccupied cart (in Beta 1.5, this was 64 blocks and 8 blocks respectively). Place an activated Lever next to the powered rail (cheapest, only requires a stick and a cobblestone to make).Place a Redstone Torch either next to the powered rail or two blocks underneath it or use powered Redstone wiring to achieve the same effect.In practice it is far more efficient to have powered rails constantly active using other means: For two-way travel, place a detector rail on both sides of the powered rail.For one-way travel, place a detector rail before the powered rail.They will also receive power from any adjacent detector rail (when a cart passes over it), even if they are not part of the same track (which follows from the rules above).īecause the detector rail powers attached rail it could be used to activate power rails only when necessary:

Powered rails will propagate power to each other if they are adjacent and part of the same track, for up to 9 blocks from the power source (1 being powered directly which is propagated to 8 adjacent rails). Power can be transmitted to the rail from any of the six adjacent positions (above, below, or any side) in the same ways that redstone wire is powered. When the powered rail is off, carts are held in place, providing a safe way to load and unload carts without them derailing like they would on pressure plates. The second and third cases can both be used to create simple stone button-activated launchpads. As the cart is now moving, rule (1) applies and the cart is accelerated in that direction. The instant the powered rail is activated, the brake is released and the cart will start moving down due to gravity. The minecart is stationary, but the powered rail is on a slope.

In this case, the cart is accelerated in the direction that is not blocked. The minecart is stationary, but one end of the powered rail is up against a solid block.The minecart is already moving, in which case the cart is accelerated in the direction of motion.

However, after going down a slope of 80 or more rail blocks, one unpowered booster rail will not stop the minecart or even come close.Ī rail in the "on" state will accelerate a minecart if any of the following is true: The force is generally strong enough to bring a moving minecart to a complete stop, or to hold a minecart in place on a slope. Powered rails, much like redstone wire, have two possible states: on or off.Ī rail that is "off" slows any passing minecart by applying a frictional force. A simple launcher using four Powered Rails, a Button and a solid block
