Minecraft – a graceful optional station

minecraft-java-edition

I've built roughly 3000 blocks worth of underground railway in my Survival game. There are stations along the way, near interesting features of terrain that require me to press button to continue.

Considering the length of the line, the obligatory stops are becoming tiresome. Currently I've made it so that return trip bypasses the stations, but it's still not optimal. I'd like a way to choose whether I stop or continue before entering the station.

Now the simple way is to hop out of the running cart and then either chase it down or use a rider detector to dump the empty cart onto a side track. That's not very elegant though.

I tried a switch, to switch the railway track before entering the station. Problem: I approach the station really fast and the switch is small. Hitting the switch while on the move is hard, I miss more frequently than I hit it.

The stations are a bit too far apart to send a redstone signal from the start station to pick my goal.

So, are there any graceful techniques how to decide upon a turn or stop of the cart while moving in it fast?

Best Answer

Here's a quick test implementation of using a Trapped Chest as a large button, as @ratchet freak suggested. Trapped Chests emit a weak redstone signal as long as they are open, stronger the more players have them open.

I wasn't thinking hard enough about how to use it, so this just stops the cart as long as the chest is open, and so is kind of useless — but you can easily change it to send the cart onto a siding for the station. Key points:

  • The incoming track needs to be straight for some distance before, so that you can easily position your cursor to hit the cart. You probably also want to have the chest a little bit earlier along the track.
  • There must be exactly 1 redstone dust between the chest and torch. The signal is too weak to travel farther, and a block beside the chest won't work at all. Don't know about using a redstone repeater.