Guide
How to contribute to the Survival Railway Network
From Dogcraft Wiki
This page contains all the information needed to contribute and/or connect to the Survival Railway Network (SRN). The page describes the difference between main line and branch line stations and the guidelines for building these and the rail lines as well as how else you can contribute to the SRN.
Stations
Stations are the stopping points for the SRN. Stations are generally builds with minecart systems in them and rail lines connected to them that allow players riding the rail line to get into or exit the minecart.
Stations are mostly built at player or group bases or in other interesting locations. Stations can be no more then approximately 2000 blocks apart, as if the journey from one station to the next takes over 5 minutes, there is a risk of players getting kicked by the afk kicker due to inactivity while riding the rail line. A shorter distance of 1000 to 1500 blocks between stations is generally preferred and most stations fall in this category.
Stations can generally be categorized as main line or branch line stations. The term main line is used for the 4 cardinal directions from spawn on each world, meaning the North, East, South and West lines leaving the Grand Central Station of each world are considered the main lines. All lines that branch off of these somewhere are considered branch lines. In Survival 5 the term of ring lines was introduced as a subset of branch lines. The ring lines are large branch lines connecting the 4 main lines on a world together and thus forming a great ring around the center of the world. Generally main lines have been held to a higher standard then branch lines in the past, but in recent years with so many talented builders on the server, branch lines have at times seen stations bigger and better then some main line stations.
Building a rail station
If you wish to build any rail station or want to connect your base to the network, this section lists the requirements and design considerations for rail stations.
The first step to building a rail station is to get in contact with the SRN.
If you are just looking for a building project and a rail station is something you want to try and build, but dont have a specific location in mind or dont care where you will be building it, check out the #open-tasks channel in the Dogcraft Transport Discord. Here Line Managers will sometimes look for someone to build a station in a specific location. A post in this channel will also directly tell you who exactly to contact if you are interested in the given task.
If you want to connect your base or build or some other specific location to the SRN, get the coordinates of the location and the world it is on and approach any SRN Line Manager or Conductor and they will be able to point you to the correct person. Alternatively you can also check in the Transport Discord which Line Manager is responsible for your area and directly contact them. The Line Manager will look at your location and inform you whether or not a direct connection is possible, if you may need to get your neighbours in the boat as well in order to connect or if you are to far away to connect to the network. As with the SRN we have to not only build the stations but also the lines in between them, we are unfortunately not going to be able to reach places that are tens of thousands of blocks away from spawn as we simply do not have enough time to build all the lines and stations required to get there. Be aware that for branch line stations, the responsible Line Manager may expect you to also build the rail line connecting your station to the nearest other rail station. Luckily the community is always happy to help out if you need help with building a long rail line!
If you have received confirmation from the SRN that you can build your station, you can start to work straight away. To properly function as a rail station there are certain requirements for your build that will have to be met.
Here is a list of requirements for a SRN rail station:
- Functional minecart dispenser systems (see below)
- Connections for at least 1 (on branch lines) or 4 (on main lines) rail lines
- The entire build (including roofs) needs to be spawn proof
- Beds
- Ender Chests
- A nether portal connected to the NTN (if a publicly accessible portal is nearby and signage is provided to get there, that is fine)
- At least 1 copy of the network map (this can be provided by the Line Managers)
- SRN Banners (you can get them from the Line Managers or at Banner Station on Sheltie)
- A map of the surrounding area
- Stations need to be easily navigable (in other words everything has to be easy to find. If locations might not be easily visible, use signs to point players in the correct direction)
The following points are not required, but are nice to have:
