We're going to take a ride down the rails in this guide. Rails and Minecarts have been in Minecraft since the beginning, but crafting them isn't exactly intuitive, so many players need help with layouts. Most of them follow the same basic guideline principles, but small changes need to be added to create specific types of rails or minecarts. We've listed all of those details and the recipes below.
How to make all rails and minecarts in Minecraft
To make this list easy to follow, we've sorted it into two sections: Rails and Minecarts (makes sense!). Minecarts are easy, but crafting different types of rails can be a bit of a hassle. We will follow the guides below and do crafts.
All tracks
Rails (normal)
Rails in Minecraft can be a bit expensive in terms of resources. Yet, they become very beneficial for agriculture and productivity. The recipe above is the 16 rail recipe. Rails don't do anything special on their own. You simply place them on the ground as a path for a Minecart to follow!
Motorized track
Motorized tracks are where things start to get more fun. When powered up with a Redstone Source enabled, Motorized Rails allow your Minecart to move forward in the available direction. When these rails lead to a solid block, the motorized rails will cause your Minecart to go in the opposite direction of the block. If your Minecart is already moving and going over a motorized track, it will make your Minecart move faster in the same direction!
Rail d’activation
Activator rails are a bit complicated in terms of behavior. They do one of four things depending on what's in the Minecart rolling over it and whether or not the Rail Activator is powered with Redstone. If an Activator Rail is powered up, it will do the following regardless of what entity is in the Minecart:
- Players & Mobs: Ejects players and mobs the same way a player would disassemble a Minecart.
- Command Blocks: Engages Commands in a Command Block every four ticks until the Minecart is no longer on the rail.
- TNT: Ignites TNT, so it's primed and ready to explode in seconds.
- Hoppers: Disables the hopper in the Minecart, so it no longer collects items from its receptacles.
Track Detector
The detection rail acts like a button. When a Minecart rolls over the rail, it activates the rail as a power source for Redstone until the Minecart is no longer on the detector rail. Once turned off, the power source turns off. This is a common block seen and used in Minecraft Adventure Maps!
Related: Best Minecraft 1.16 Adventure Maps (February 2021) – Pro Game Guides
Minecarts
Above is the recipe for a basic Minecart. It requires fewer resources than a rail, and the recipe is the same pattern you would use to craft a boat, except you use iron ingots instead of planks. Once you've finished crafting a Minecart and grabbed the appropriate block, you're ready to spawn one of the Minecart variants below!
Making the other types of Minecarts is extremely easy, as they all follow the same basic idea. You can craft five different carts. Besides the Minecart itself, you just need to place the block you want to use on top of the Minecart item to make it that version of Minecart.
As you can see, crafting them is indeed easy. You can use them as handy tools to transfer items, activate Redstone energy sources, or even cause destruction with explosions! Overall, rails and minecarts bring a lot of fun and functionality to the game.
Need to extend your Redstone signal? Check out our guide on how to make and use a Redstone Repeater!
