/jp/ - Otaku Culture

Ok, to sum up how they will build their rail line
Their rail line looks to be about 1500 blocks, but let's just use 2000 blocks to be safe. They might also want to add some additional track to visit the village or something.

Pic related is the formula for constructing rails, and powered rails.
6 pieces of iron create 16 railroad tracks, that's 2.67 tracks per piece of iron.
6 pieces of gold create 6 powered rail tracks, that's 1 powered rail per gold
1 redstone dust creates 6 tracks. But you also need 1 redstone torch to power each piece of track. That's 1.167 redstone dust per track.

To maintain top speed on a straightaway, you need to place a powered rail every 38 blocks. In other words, 37 normal rails in between the powered rails.
In order to maintain top speed going up a hill, you need to place a powered rail every 4 blocks, so 3 normal rails in between. There is some dispute on this, I think it depends on the version people are playing, some will only have 2 normal rails in between.

Empty minecarts don't travel as far, occupied minecarts have more momentum. You shouldn't build your rail line to push empty carts, because it's easy to lose a cart down the line, and you want that cart to stop so you can collect it. So avoid doing a powered rail less than 1 every 28 blocks.

Thus, for every 100 blocks of rail, you will need 2.63 pieces of gold, 3.07 pieces of redstone, and 36.51 pieces of iron
For the entire 2000 block track, accounting for extra powered rails for the ascent/descent into the tunnel, you will need about:
54 pieces of gold, 70 pieces of redstone, 730 pieces of iron.

Rails are powered by placing a redstone torch next to them, or by powering them with redstone dust. If a gold-rail is left unpowered, it will act in the opposite direction and serve as a braking mechanism.

How to accelerate your minecart at the start/finish?
It takes about 4 powered rails to push the cart from stopped, to full speed. The easiest way to do this is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtSMSM8VEV0
>put a wooden block at the end of the rail line to catch your minecart
>last piece of track is 1 or 2 powered rails, this will be your braking mechanism at the end of the track, and your acceleration mechanism in the other direction
>rail is powered with a button. The button's power is temporary, thus you need a few more powered rails which are unconnected to the first one to push you along to max speed
>it helps to have an incline near the beginning.