Rails are incredibly useful to have in Minecraft. Rails and carts operate similarly to boats, and they can help to save you time when traveling and transporting items.
Powered rails are even more efficient.
You’ll need special ores to make powered rails, so it’s important to understand ore levels. Here’s a guide on how to make powered rails in Minecraft and how to use them, too.
Minecraft Powered Rails Recipe
- 6 golden ingots
- 1 stick
- 1 redstone dust
The main components of a powered rail are gold and redstone dust, both of which can be mined at a similar cave level.
You will likely want to make quite a few powered rails along with regular rails in order to make a full track.
Powered rails can be made by arranging everything as shown in the image below.
This recipe is enough for 6 powered rails.
Minecraft Rails Recipe
- 6 iron ingots
- 1 stick
Normal rails are much easier to make and very resource efficient.
This recipe requires iron, which you are likely to have plenty of by the time you are crafting rails. A single recipe is enough for 16 rails.
Finding Powered Rails
Powered rails can be found in mineshafts.
It’s quite rare, but you can sometimes come across a minecart with a chest. Inside this chest, there’ll be lots of loot- the most important of which being powered rails and regular rails.
How to Use Powered Rails
Powered rails are simple to use if you understand the basics of using rails in Minecraft.
You can place powered rails down just like regular rails.
When placed they will connect to any rail beside it, allowing minecarts to travel along them. They can curve, as well as climb up or down blocks, depending on their placement.
Powered rails can be powered with a redstone signal.
To power them, you can simply use a redstone torch or a more complex redstone mechanism.
Powering a rail means that the minecart on it will move forward automatically and will also move at a faster speed than usual.
If left unpowered, a powered rail can have the opposite effect and reduce the minecart’s speed. Make sure to test your powered rails out and check.
The easiest way to use powered rails is to place them along your rail track every few rails. Power them with redstone torches. I place them every 3 to 5 blocks on average.
This will allow you to send the carts from one place to another without driving them. It is a good way to transport items if you have carts with chests.
At the end of the track, use unpowered powered rails to slow down your cart if you need to. Including a hopper at the end of the track with a chest also allows you to transfer items without lifting a finger.
It is good to include the slowing powered rails at the end of track, because minecarts can fly off the tracks or bounce too hard into a block and simply come straight back.
What to Do Next
There are other ways to use rails and powered rails, other than just regular transport or in complex redstone components.
Building a rollercoaster is a perfect way to have some fun by yourself or friends. Powered rails are perfect for powering your rollercoaster and creating the great speeds they are known for.
