64Craft Railway Map

Posted by marbs on May 12, 2011, 5:54 p.m.

I decided that today, for once, I would not play Minecraft all evening, and would do something else constructive instead. This is the result!

(North is to the left)

The colours of the line represent how I decided to group them:

Green - Old lines

Purple - Spawn line

Yellow - Melton/Piccadilly connection

Blue - North/South line

Red - Founton and the nearby area

I looked at the London Underground map to get inspiration. I represented the stations in the same way (black circles with white centers), and even used the official London Tube font, Johnston.

The light grey shapes represent the land masses, in a very abstract sort of way. To keep it simple a lot of the details in the land mass was ignored, including tiny islands. The line of sea just below Piccadilly is the Founton Canal.

More about the railway lines

The longest section of track is the Piccadilly/Epicity line, totalling somewhere over 1200 blocks long, and takes over 3m30s to travel at full speed. It is almost entirely underground, making it also the longest rail tunnel.

The longest bridge is from Founton Quay to North Founton. A stylish suspension bridge, built almost completely from gold and iron (lol /item) that spans the 150 block gap.

The oldest line is from Fort Independence to Melton, which is also the only railway line that is 2 blocks wide instead of 3. The standard width of 3 blocks is because minecarts on parallel tracks going in opposite directions will actually collide. I did not realise this until the Fort Independence line was completed, however some of it has been converted to the 3 width since.

The best station is Piccadilly, which has a redstone powered "computer" that allows you to choose which of the 6 tracks to take. (The 6th track not displayed is currently incomplete). The computer uses 5 NOR latches to store the states of the 6 junctions. The runner up to best station is West Founton, which has a much simpler computer with just two options. Because of the strange track layout present, however, it has to use a NOR latch with a delayed reset.

The most beautiful station is Founton Quay. The walls are made of brick, and it features a double triangular wooden roof with tall glass railway station style windows. Founton Quay was briefly made redundant by Piccadilly before it was reopened with a revamped interior, including a quaint wooden footbridge for changing platforms.

The most dysfunctional station is Epicity, which until recently simply sent you back in the opposite direction after giving you less than a second to depart. This is due to the station there relying on the Craftbook mod that was uninstalled from our server months ago.

The highest station is Scenic Heights, built on the very edge of a huge overhang near the top of the minecraft height limit. The line leading down from it traverses treacherous wooden structures clinging to the cliff side. Many lives were lost in the construction.

The smallest station is Lungfishopolis, if it can even be called a station. There is no station building, just some signs telling you where the track leads.

The most griefable line is the underground section from Melton to Oldoldspawn. Almost the entire underground line is actually a glass underwater tunnel, which has been broken and flooded the railway in the past.

The loneliest section is the line around Dracula's Castle and Adena Desert. I have not heard of anyone visiting there in months.

The most congested and crowded section is near East Founton. The line leads directly from the current spawn point, so gets the most traffic, and the railway winds in between the busy town with multiple railroad crossings and hazardous animals that never cease to find some way to plant themselves on the track.

Now a nice picture for the majority of you who scrolled straight to the bottom.

Everything else

Coursework deadline in a few days, multiple exams very soon, job starts in a month, not worked on Rollabout for a few weeks due to being busy (but it will get finished in time).

Comments

Kamira 13 years, 7 months ago

I thought my railway from my mine to Rune was the first? Oh well. I'm guessing this ignores Skyway, and I have a section of track that is over 2000 blocks, but it's not finished and won't be for a long time. Also I dislike North not being up but whatever. Good job with the map.

marbs 13 years, 7 months ago

@Kamira

I ignored the Skyway and other unofficial railway lines :P

It wouldn't be that hard to make North be up, but since our cartograph has North facing left it made more sense.

@Stevenup7002

!

@Cyrus

That trap killed me! I saw the track collapse ahead but didn't have enough time to react without likely spilling my tea over me and my laptop. I survived the long fall down that pit, and even survived the TNT explosion. What killed me was the wall of lava that the TNT unleashed.

It was a very well constructed trap, but from now on I will be very suspicious of unauthorised minecart pressure plates on the mainline :P

Quietus 13 years, 7 months ago

i've never even seen Piccadilly, you guys have been doing a lot since i've been gone lol

(<-Kuskavich)

Majatek 13 years, 7 months ago

Now all you have to do is is use that railway layout image as a picture-in-a-frame texture mod and stick at all the railway stations in Minecraft! =D

KaBob799 13 years, 7 months ago

But the skyway is older than a lot of those railways =[

Kamira 13 years, 7 months ago

Good idea, Rambofox. We could also make some city maps and maybe even a small world map.

We should make higher res versions than 16x16. I don't know how texture packs work but I assume that you could have just that painting as 256x256 with the rest at 16x16, without adding much lag. If not I guess we'd have to make a 256x256 and keep lowering its quality.

Josea 13 years, 7 months ago

I was so waiting for this, great job marbs!

HeroofTime55 13 years, 7 months ago

I'm actually building up the area around my Water Temple, into a small town of sorts. You're free to build a line all the way out there, and maybe connect it to some other points of interest along the way (Ruins of Clayton? Rune? Kabob's old town?)

HeroofTime55 13 years, 7 months ago

I'll probably call the town something dumb like Hyrule or something.

Moikle 13 years, 7 months ago

the Melton Piccadilly line is not yellow!