Icrontient rail system management
the_technocrat
IC-MotY1Indy Icrontian
Building a 2-way rail system wastes a lot of rail - it'll rarely be used in both directions simultaneously, if ever. But the track's down now, and I'm not going to tear it all up... 
A lot of the boosters are kinda screwy, I think Basil fixed a few. Also, there's about 2x as many boosters as you need.
Somebody made a tunnel going through the mountain to the E of spawn. That's cool, but it leaves Eggy and Dragon out of service for an E spur - we'll need to Have a N line to support them now.
I put all the rail I had into the current E tunnel that comes out right next to my house, starting at my place and working back - ran out about halfway.
When I get some spare time and rail, I'll make a station like in that demo world I did at spawn. We'll have a row of switches so people can decide which direction they want to be propelled from spawn (currently W, but soon W or E)
Eventually when you spawn, you'll be able to hit one switch to select S/W or N/E, then a second switch to specify either S or W & N or E. It'll make more sense when it's built.
A lot of the boosters are kinda screwy, I think Basil fixed a few. Also, there's about 2x as many boosters as you need.
Somebody made a tunnel going through the mountain to the E of spawn. That's cool, but it leaves Eggy and Dragon out of service for an E spur - we'll need to Have a N line to support them now.
I put all the rail I had into the current E tunnel that comes out right next to my house, starting at my place and working back - ran out about halfway.
When I get some spare time and rail, I'll make a station like in that demo world I did at spawn. We'll have a row of switches so people can decide which direction they want to be propelled from spawn (currently W, but soon W or E)
Eventually when you spawn, you'll be able to hit one switch to select S/W or N/E, then a second switch to specify either S or W & N or E. It'll make more sense when it's built.
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There is currently a cobblestone ring around the protected-spawn-zone, which serves several purposes. It marks the border of the non-buldable area (albeit underground for the eastern half of the ring (square)), which is, oddly, about 29 meters on a side (it fluxuates slightly from time to time with no known cause); it will serve as a guide for the eventual flattening of the spawn zone (once we figure out how to do that), and it is a starting point for the road/rail system.
The transportation system is an open project, any contributions to it are welcome, and one should try not to be miffed if their contributions are eventually modified. Consider it a Wikiroad, if you'll allow the phrase.
We should try to build the road generally toward civilized areas without building the main section to any specific 'owned' location, and with as much consideration for other's projects as possible (building tunnels and bridges, and so forth). Each person can then build their own access road to their projects from the road, if they like. Road builders should try to have some consideration for these 'driveways', and modify them as little as possible.
I actually prefer rail lines over land anyway - more scenic
Anyways, we need to raise the roof to 5 meters and then lay track (if you haven't already, I haven't been on Eastern Road for 48 hours or so)
1. Build a Grand Central station just N of the junction of the West Loop and South Line
2. Extend rail almost all the way to icronticville, but ran out of track
Grand Central is sully up and operational with 2 lines. Simply sit in one of the minecards designated 'West Loop' or 'South Spur' and the system will automatically come and launch you down that track.
To Do:
- build platforms for a North and East line
- Work on the West Loop return, the carts don't reset yet
- Once everything's all set, cover most of the area with a nice-looking platform to make it look like a real train station, and to keep people/animals/mobs from waltzing through the mechanisms of the station's systems, which break them.
If you have rail/iron to spare, please let me know and/or use it to bring the rest of the South Loop into existence.
For the end of the lines, I was going to make a duplicate of that example world I uploaded back in the day, with single arrival/departure gates, 1 each.
Well you can dump whatever you want in a chest by the furnace at the station if you like. Eventually the S line needs to be finished, all the returns, the 2 new platforms and an E and N line... so, however much you want to donate, I'm assuming it'll get used.
the idea behind this is that the current loops don't allow you to exit the railway without losing the minecart... unless that's what we want?
I would like to eventually put a rail from my place (east of town) to the town so we will probably need a sizable station there at the entrance to town.
My focus so far has been on incorporating the station into the existing lines, establishing a S line to icrontictown (with icrontictown stop), and making the station's existence fluid and easy to use with all lines.
As soon as the station is working 100% (the cart returns aren't made yet) I'll make the icrontictown stop, then look into the E line if no-one else has worked on it.
The only thing I can't decide is if Eggy should be the start of the N line, or if he's close enough to run the E line out to.
Opinions?
Not sure I understand how to make a mechanism to queue a cart, then bring another one at the ready, but that is what reading is for
East line is going to be a lot underground right now, but what if we go south for enough distance to put us at sea level, then turn east and cut just under where Drasnor's "bridge" over the water to the spaceship is. Then continue East to the tree house then maybe north up over the mountain to dragon/eggy and then around back near my place?
Yeah, basically grand central only needs a single 'arrivals' gate. I guess we need to decide of the minecarts on the system are meant to be reused, or if we should just have a bunch of them, and people need to keep a minecart on them all the time to re-use
I would like to thank Prag for donating 320 iron to the cause, it made most of the loop to ICtown (and we still have some left).
Looks like we may need to build another layer near central station for the N and E spurs or just use more of the road we have. With 5 wide, there can be 5 sets of tracks in some places to save space.
Oh, I also secured the West and South spurs from getting animals on the tracks as best I could. I know it makes an ugly wall from the outside, but the livestock can't jump up on/over. I could probably be lowered 1 in some places. I topped it with stone to keep spawn from actually happening at the top of the wall (which is also why Central is topped in stone, those bastards had it all mucked up last night, I was like, WTF?).
yeah, the animals/mobs make the "engine" in the back stop when the carts hit them. The only reason those carts are storage carts is so they don't pick up creepers, which is a bear to fix...
I am somewhat unhappy with the station at ICtown, my walkways turned out "crooked" because I was off by 1 block when I put down the outbound switch pad.
I wanted to create walkways for those that don't take the rail and were walking the road/tracks. When they get to the station, they don't have to walk on the rails, but to be honest, it's ugly. If anyone wants to redesign, they are welcome to.
I think the "engine" is in pretty compact form, only 1 switch needed here. Like I said, if you have a better idea in your head, go for it
West Line and South Line returns at Grand Central working
Icrontrak apologizes for the delay in service
no boosters on east line yet, it needs it
east line needs a lot of tunnel work
extending east line to run through the valley east of my place would be ab awesome destination - lots of geography out there.
completely out of rail and iron, but got a ton done today
I moved the inverter, 1 block back and so it works, but that broke the new East line switch system.
Because of placement, enabling the East switch will require rework of the west switch. If you go down where the inverter is, you will see what I mean.
There are 192 new pieces of track in the chest at Grand Central. Someone donated 65 iron ore, so I made it into track.
That does it for me tonight
Thanks T_T.
yeah, I'm going to have to work on that inverter. The distance is just a little too long, and it's harder than you think to get all three departure platforms to work without shorting each other out.
I'll check it out tonight if I can.
In the process, I discovered many, many ways to make the station as a whole a lot more efficient, but it requires a lot of work. Need to happen though if there's ever going to be a North Line platform.
When i have a few hours, I'll remake the station a little better, in the meantime it might be a little wonky.