Railroad Stations

[Lazybones]

The problem with the drop as illustrated is that calling a cart twice will case two minecarts to merge. Unless the call button also launches the current cart.

The current design puts the call track before the incoming call detector so that one detector solves both issues...

Forgetting all of that the breaking / pulsing speed of powdered rails is not fast enough to let only one cart go.

The pez drop actually uses a special feedback property in redstone circuits to flip the trap door really fast so only one cart is released

[Thorin]

Now, there is the obvious problem of only one cart, no dispenser system.  There is also the obvious problem of what if there's already a cart and another cart comes in.  I think these can be overcome.

Of note, if you look at the overview all covers on pictures, you can see that I actually have a set of steps down to the cart.  This means you can right-click the cart and then just walk off, no jumping or anything.  This was one of my design goals.

Next up is trying to solve the multiple carts at the station dilemma.

[Lazybones]

My station handles this by having a detector rail up track that always fires my stations launcher...

This always clears the station.


Down the track from the platform is the rider detection. It always checks the cart leaving the station for a rider and redirects empty carts, in my case directly back into the dispenser.

The general idea could be implemented flat using a different platform and different style rider detector.

[Thorin]

Sounds like you're a lot farther along on station research and design than the rest of us

Do you have a tutorial or sample station anywhere that we could follow if we're building new stations?  If it's a sample station, build it out in the boonies somewhere and do it all in glass (or don't cover it) so we can see the inner workings.

I'm especially interested in your riderless minecart detection system.

[Mr. Analog]

I really like how the riderless problem was solved a pressure plate on top of a fence post sends a signal to a switch that either sends the cart on its merry way with rider or returns it to the magazine.

Check it out in operation at Biome or Beach station

[Thorin]

Tom, I rode your rails.  Did you really dig right past coal and iron and redstone without digging it up?  Or is this a case of the world spawning new materials in?

[Thorin]

I really like how the riderless problem was solved a pressure plate on top of a fence post sends a signal to a switch that either sends the cart on its merry way with rider or returns it to the magazine.

Check it out in operation at Biome or Beach station

I did, works pretty darn good!  It feels weird to go right through that fence post the first time, though.

[Lazybones]

Sounds like you're a lot farther along on station research and design than the rest of us

Do you have a tutorial or sample station anywhere that we could follow if we're building new stations?  If it's a sample station, build it out in the boonies somewhere and do it all in glass (or don't cover it) so we can see the inner workings.

I'm especially interested in your riderless minecart detection system.

I have posted youtube video links to both the detector tutorial and the pez tutorials previously... Please note I am not being critical of the the ideas, but trying to evolve the designs... The current Beach / BIOME stations actually take MUCH longer to build in survival due to not being able to fly and the need to dig out the area and mistakes... I also minimized as much track as I could ( you still have to cover the vertical distance of the PEZ stack which comes with about a 3-4 block high premium over the number of carts you want to store (that is why it is under rather than over)....

[Thorin]

Yeah, but then you also said you never build it quite the same as what the tutorials show.  I guess I was getting the vibe here that you wanted all the stations to copy your design, so I figured you could show us exactly what you did.

A sample station I would've figured you to build in creative mode so that you can fly and place and not use any materials, since it's not being used for anything.

Anyway, I'm having fun with pistons at the moment, trying to come up with a reverse pez dispenser that doesn't require a bunch of powered rails.

[Lazybones]

Also this discussion reminds me that I have spent a lot of time working on rail stations and other redstone projects in creative mode. As well as research.


I may almost have all the key ideas together to build a flat station with similar function to the LRT station, but the cost to build it in survival will be higher. And hide most of the tech so it looks old timey

I wonder if you can see a desktop share of creative mode over Skype?

Hmm that reminds me that my station is broken in creative mode right now.

Well I could still explain the stations on the server.

IE beach and biome needed a different switch track because of the strange orientation behavior of tracks.

[Thorin]

lol

Yeah, we spend way too much time on this   I can push a block in the way to stop a cart, and put a block behind it to trap it (to stop rebounding).  I can even push the cart to a second track under the station floor, good for once the cart is empty.  But right now I can't think of any way to do a horizontal pez dispenser - every idea I have will result in an empty cart sitting on a powered track with no solid block behind it, doing nothing.

So how many carts do you store in your dispensers?

[Lazybones]

The dispenser in beach station can store 6 carts before jamming, not counting a cart waiting on the platform.

that makes it 9 blocks tall in total, since the entrance adds one to the top (carts must fall, a cart level with the top will jam) and two at the bottom (one for the hatch and one space open below with track).



At beach station if you go through the door on left (pineview) of the plaform when facing it, then go through the maintenance door you can look behind and below to see most of the workings of the station.

carts must be piling up somewhere since I am down to one cart.

[Lazybones]

Here is a fairly simple as level station that replaces the launching setup..

Pro:
- uses half blocks for the platform so it is very low to the ground
- Achieves very good stopping
- user can walk out

Con:
- bunny hopping user can cause cart to slip forward a little out off launch position but it should not take off
- zig zag is not as clean
- piston is visible but a regular wood piston not a green sticky piston.

[Mr. Analog]

Woo Lazy, neat design!

I learnt first hand the other day about just how complex designing something and implementing it is in Minecraft. I built an airlock type door system for the potion brewing place (which I think only Tom has seen, since no one commented on the pics), I actually had to learn a few things about circuit design to understand how to build it in the first place and then I had to actually build the sucker. Even after building in Creative Mode I found that I hadn't roughed in enough space and had to come up with some err, interesting solutions. All the while fending off a literal horde of monsters...

It was a pain to build but very rewarding in the end (I think it's super cool heh)

[Lazybones]

Ya, redstone has all sorts of weird issues...

For example in this station you can see I have covered the redstone lines and repeater/delay, however this only works with halfblocks/slabs (or a air gap) since they don't conduct redstone current, if you put a full block directly over top it shorts the circuit..

I sort of had a rack shifting launcher almost working in creative, but it required two opposite pistons to move one then the other, then repeat in reverse, I could only get it working one way, then I looked at flip flop cirtius etc to solve the problem and realized it was going to take a lot of space.