Once the cart is pushed, its rider uses a forward or backward move, or a block placed at one of its ends, the cart's direction of motion is set and the powered rail can affect it. Note that a minecart placed on an active powered rail cannot move as it has no motion for the powered rail to add to. When unpowered they are "off" and strongly reduce the momentum of a cart passing over them.
Powered rails may be activated by redstone to turn them "on" which makes them able to add momentum to carts already moving over them. Running a track next to a wall makes no difference to the speed of progress, but an adjacent one-block-high wall significantly slows down a cart if the cart is pointed at the wall while entering a turn or "diagonal" section. With a rider, a cart can climb at least 24 blocks before needed powered rails to go higher. If construction cost is no object one can of course use powered rails all the way to the top to get the best possible performance.Ĭarts with a rider, or chest carts, have more momentum and so climb higher than one that is unloaded. To maintain speed in a climb a ratio of 5:4, powered versus regular rail segments, is a good compromise for decent speed at a reasonable cost, starting with 2 powered rails on the flat before the upward slope to be sure the cart starts the climb at maximum speed. Further testing showed the minimum number of powered blocks to keep the cart climbing well is 3 powered rails every 6 blocks starting at 9 blocks high, at the cost of a strong reduction in speed. However, the cart slows so much that it can reach only another 5 blocks high with 2 lengths of powered track starting at 9 blocks high. This suggests that powered track is needed at this height only to keep a cart climbing.
Turning next to a wall (see below) or having hills to climb adversely affect the speed of a cart, and so its distance traveled.Ī minecart with no rider, at full speed, can climb 10 blocks on unpowered, upward sloping rail. The performance of a rail line is affected by the way the track is placed. The rest of this page discusses the use of these components in building tracks and rail transport systems.
A minecart with a player inside goes from stationary to full speed after about 13m of powered rail.Activated powered rails, down slopes, and being pushed by players or mobs add momentum to a cart, increasing its speed.A chest minecart carrying 320 items (5 stacks) travels 101m from full speed.An empty hopper or chest minecart travels 165m from full speed.A fully loaded hopper or chest minecart travels 40m from full speed.A minecart with a player inside travels 309m from full speed, staying at full speed for 176m.Minecarts move differently depending on their load.On a diagonal track they move at 11.314 m/s = sqrt(2) * 8. Minecarts move at 8 m/s at top speed on a straight track.The following are the most important properties of minecarts. 4.1.3 "Whirligig" cyclical minecart accelerator.