Worldwide Rail System

J1015814

Moderator
Staff member
Hello folks. An idea for a worldwide rail system has been kicked around a bit, so I thought I'd formalize some of my own thoughts on the matter here, maybe help get things organized. I'm not electing myself foreman or anything like that. Just want to make sure anyone participating is on the same page.

What is it?

- A railway system that connects towns in the main world.

Where is it?

- Wherever it is needed or desired. Underground, in the air, under water, wherever you build it!

Who's gonna build it?

- Anyone may participate. All we ask is that you follow a few simple guidelines to help things go smoothly.

When do we start?

- If you feel like participating, let us know here.

Why do this?

- Because we can. Seriously, this is not a practical project since we can simply teleport (for a small fee) to whatever towns allow it. It's likely that any town connected to the worldwide rail system will also allow teleporting.

How do we approach this?

- I've gathered my thoughts on how we can approach this endeavor with minimal conflict. Details below.


General guidelines:


- Anything you want to build in your own town will be your business, but can not receive material assistance from the public works stash. However, anything built outside your town is eligible. Let me know if you need rails or other things to build out the "international" portion of the railway.

- For the international portion we should adhere to two rails, one block apart, in parallel. It requires less material overall, and is easier to secure against mobs. Exceptions can be made for splitting the pair for going around mountains or taking scenic routes, but it should always come back to the standard. This will also ensure ease of expansion and connectivity if a settlement wants to join in later.

- Right side forward vs left side forward: use whatever style you want, but make sure you post a sign saying which style is in use so we don't have any collisions. Overhead blocks could work as indicators, and/or arrow signs. Switchovers can be made when needed, as they aren't terribly complex.

- Use "cheap" blocks as much as possible to discourage vandalism and looting. Don't worry about fire spread, because it's turned off.

- Don't use tree trunks for long, unbroken stretches. The golden axe can be a mighty troll weapon. If you want to use very long logs, make sure they are broken up every so often and that no rails are laid upon them.

- Secure the system. Don't let monsters spawn on the trackway or get close enough to do damage to riders. Make barriers to protect against skeleton arrows and wall-climbing spiders.

- Build above the lava line and below the cloud line. Going too far in either direction gets expensive in terms of materials and requires more work to make adjustments when expanding the system.

- Make sure to completely clear out any trees that are in the way. Partially-destroyed trees are ugly. If the style of the railway itself is tree-based, make sure mobs can't get up there.

- If you're building a bridge over an ocean, make sure boats can pass underneath.


Style guidelines:

- Do not make cobblestone strings high in the air. Those are ugly. Feel free to make cobblestone monuments to the flying spaghetti monster in your own town, just don't do it anywhere else, please.

- Try to keep a consistent style for long stretches. Frequent changes without smooth transitions will look weird.

- If a bridge must "float", include something that looks like it's holding the bridge up. Balloons, rockets, whatever. It looks weird to have a huge structure simply float in the air, held up by nothing.

- Redstone torches are fine, but if they aren't necessary to the style and you can hide them, please do so. Same goes for switches. Hide those to prevent shenanigans.

- If you're building above ground or underwater, let riders see outside.

- If you're building underground, decorate.


Ideas for themes:

Here's some ideas for styles we can implement. They're not requirements at all, merely suggestions.

- Heavenly (quartz and other white blocks, glowstone, waterfalls)

- Hellish (nether blocks, fire, lavafalls)

- Aquatic (ocean monument blocks, glass)

- Natural (trees, leaves, vines, flowers)

- Rickety (wood planks, torches, thin or missing pieces)

- Aged (cracked/mossy/normal stone bricks, iron bars)

- Fancy (red brick, wood, flowers)

- Party Time (bright blocks, fireworks triggered by detector rails)

- End (purpur & end blocks, end rods, purple glass)
 
I think this is a great start, would posting pictures of potential design ideas on this thread be a good idea or should we make another? Just to give an idea of what can fit into the guidelines you put forth.
 

J1015814

Moderator
Staff member
First picture is a floating "heavenly" bridge suspended by a big glowing orb. Following pictures show a "party time" bridge with automated fireworks launchers. As the last picture shows, they only launch at night thanks to the sensors.
 

Attachments

I think this is still a really good idea, but would we want to start on it now as the map stands or is there potential for updating unused terrain still?
 

Kapten_Knas

lol ɹoʇɐɹʇsıuıɯpɐ
Staff member
I think this is still a really good idea, but would we want to start on it now as the map stands or is there potential for updating unused terrain still?
It's safe to build in the current world - updating unused terrain would prove very time-consuming.
The only thing that I would wish to do is to expand the map to e.g. 10k by 10k, as we're running new hardware since 1.13 - with a lot more legroom. :)
 

dannyboykey

New Member
I think this is a great idea! id love to be a part of it, I just don't really have too much time to work on it is the problem, I'm still trying to get my town to functioning status. Let me know I can contribute, or where you want my train to connect to. @Kapten_Knas the town markers are no longer on the world map, would it be possible to restore them for this project?
 

Kapten_Knas

lol ɹoʇɐɹʇsıuıɯpɐ
Staff member
Hey @dannyboykey I'll definetly love to get you involved. We just have to decide whether we want to go above ground or under, I think under would be best but will take more time to complete.
Probably equally as long as you'd want the above track to be safe. :D
Though yeah, underground probably needs the least maintenance. Any suggested depth?
 

J1015814

Moderator
Staff member
Does this mean the main world won't be getting an overhaul? I'm ok with whatever, just wanna make sure it's settled.
Don't forget folks, I have materials set aside for the rail system. Let me know if you need anything.
 

Kapten_Knas

lol ɹoʇɐɹʇsıuıɯpɐ
Staff member
Changed my mind a bit when I started digging, as it tbh would be quite boring for such a distance underground. So I'm going at Y73!
I guess I'm heading your way @J1015814?

The plan is to stick to main land and Y73 as much as possible - incorporating any natural elements with tunnels through mountains and such.

1545579568925.png
 
I like this plan, what would the above look of the rail appear? my town has some examples of bridges and elevated rail along with tunnels through mountains if you want some examples!
 

J1015814

Moderator
Staff member
Looks like a good route to me. We could settle on one particular style for the entire length, or have it change each time it goes through a mountain or biome boundary.
 

J1015814

Moderator
Staff member
Changed my mind a bit when I started digging, as it tbh would be quite boring for such a distance underground. So I'm going at Y73!
I guess I'm heading your way @J1015814?

The plan is to stick to main land and Y73 as much as possible - incorporating any natural elements with tunnels through mountains and such.

(photo trimmed)
I'm thinking we can align the middles of our constructions on x coordinate -2900. We can make a left-forward/right-forward switchover wherever we end up meeting, if necessary.

Edited to add: eyes of ender don't lead to strongholds in the main world, so I'm thinking of building a rail route to one I know of. It's northeast of Mirion, an easy detour from our planned connection.
 
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Kapten_Knas

lol ɹoʇɐɹʇsıuıɯpɐ
Staff member
Looks like a good route to me. We could settle on one particular style for the entire length, or have it change each time it goes through a mountain or biome boundary.
This is the design I've started building in Mirion, we could switch at a mountain before we meet up. :)

1546206087176.png


The outbound track from Mirion will be on the right hand side.
 
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