{ dubovsky.com rantings }

So you want to add a minecart station to the existing line? There are three basic steps:

1. set up your cart launcher block
2. run your track into the main line
3. set up the station (brick) block there at the new intersection

We’ll take the steps in order.

1. Set up your cart launcher block

1. Place your obsidian block where you want your cart trips to stop and launch.
2. Put some rail on the block.
3. Stand on the block and face the direction you want to launch (toward the main line). Type /pos and note the direction you’re facing (north, east, etc.).
4. Dig some ladder/stairs so you can get under the obsidian block.

The ladder/stairs should be permanent (don’t remove them when done) for maintenance crews.

5. Under the obsidian block, place a sign with the following two lines: “Launch East” and “Launch Player”. Replace “East” with the direction from the above step.

2. Run your track into the main line

1. um, lay some rail between your obsidian block and the main line
2. every 200m or so, place a booster block under the rail (our Minecart Mania configuration uses bookcase blocks for boosters instead of the normal gold blocks)

3. Set up the station block

1. When your rail reaches the main line, knock out the block at the intersection and place a brick block there (and replace the track, of course).
2. Stand on that block and use /pos to figure out which direction (north, east, etc.) Ispawnbul is and which direction your line is.
3. Dig another ladder/stair so you can get under that block. Please make it fit in and not ugly! (Again, The ladder/stairs should be permanent for maintenance crews.) If your obsidian block is close, just dig along under your track so you have only one entryway.
4. Place two signs under the brick block. The uppermost sign (right below the brick block) should have the following lines, obviously changing the “N”, “E”, etc. to be the directions appropriate in your case:
   • st-spawn:W
   • st-mystation:S
   • st-next:S
   • default:STR
5. The second sign (just below the first, so two blocks below the brick block) should have the following lines (again, modify as needed):
   • empty:D
   • st-east:E

All Done

Your station should now work. Test it! Make sure it doesn’t interrupt traffic flowing on the main line.

If you want to know what the signs and blocks do, read on. Otherwise, you’re all done!

• The obsidian block both stops (holds) incoming carts and, because of the “Launch Player” on the sign below it, will launch you in the sign-specified direction when someone gets into an empty cart there. Handy!
• When the cart reaches the main line, it hits the track on the brick block. Brick is a “Station Block” in MCM, so the addon looks for a signs under the block for instructions. Note that MCM processes the bottom sign first and then the top sign, but each sign’s instructions are evaluated from top line to bottom line and the first match determines the direction the cart will take when exiting the junction. In our example above:
  • if an empty cart comes along, destroy it (return it to its owner)
  • if the user typed “/st east -s” (wants to head on down the east line), send them east
  • if the user typed “/st spawn -s”, send them west toward Spawnville
  • if the user typed “/st mystation -s”, send them south along the track we just laid toward our place
  • if the user typed “/st next -s”, send them south (it’s the next stop, after all)
  • if no other rules matched, keep them going straight on in the direction they were already going; this covers all the typical cases

If you want to see a simple example station, type “/st introp -s” from Ispawnbul and take a look at how the station there works.