SEED
SEED is a simple minecraft 1.15+ railway design developed by NastyHabits that allows you to automatically switch directions at T-intersections by holding certain food (in hand or offhand or both) that attract animals allowing them to switch track for you. It is super easy to construct and requires very little materials. T-intersection is one straight rail line with another connecting into it at 90 deg angle.
Materials required for each T-intersection:
- 1 cobweb
- 1 lead
- 1 stone pressure plate
- 1 sign
- 1 nametag (for animal)
- 1 optional water source
- 1 animal (chicken, pig, sheep (or cow), bee)
- 6 powered rails
- 10 rails
- 3 glass
- 2 redstone dust
- 5 redstone sources (torch, block to power the rails)
- 3 any blocks
How it works
You hold certain 'ticket' food in hand or offhand (or both) during your ride (you can afk as well), at intersection certain animal senses it and switches track for you automatically by walking onto pressure plate that switches the track (you can invert it with redstone torch too), when player leaves the intersection, animal gets pulled back from pressure plate into default position. Cobweb at center introduces 17 second wait time for animal to react even at serious lags.
On any rail line that has SEED station you place a chest/dispencer with 'tickets' and add info on sign/iframe that you can hold X/Y/Z to reach another destination on this line. Every SEED station provides info about default destination as well as tickets you can hold in hands to reach other SEED stations. You can create one deep nested T-intersection, but they introduce some limitation so use wisely.
Food tickets and animal needed to switch track:
- any seed - chicken
- carrot/potato/beetroot - pig
- wheat - sheep (or cow)
- any flower - bee
Using rabbits is not recommended since they can be triggered by golden carrots (food of choice for many), bee may need some tinkering with holding chamber design.
SEED system properties:
- T-intersection has a default route you can set (aka seedless route), your SEED station should require ticket in hand to arrive to.
- 6 destinations on 1 rail line
- Can be used on any rail line, but only once for each animal type (notify rail line authority and update the signs to avoid problems)
- Ticket system works for whole line
- Eliminates a lot of redundant rails
- You can install a special bypass rail to eliminate use of ticket on your way back (one way only route)
Use on PvE
First ever SEED station was added on Rev25 on already existing 'Ambrosia - Aero Rogue' line that happened to pass just near Halloween City in a scenic place (saved 90% rails), system employed a chicken and was used successfully many times. Default route is Ambrosia <-> Aero Rouge, holding seed in hand from any of those switched you to Halloween City, default departing route from Seed station: HC - Aero Rouge (seedless) or HC - Ambrosia (with seed).