How to contribute to the Survival Railway Network

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:

• A log book for visitors
• Decorating the surrounding area
• A high point for elytra take off
• Connections to other transport network like the CSC or RHN

Very important for the design of the station are of course the location and size of the rail lines, but also the location and size of the minecart dispenser system. The rail lines are typically three blocks wide (the rails themselves and a stair block to either side) and there should be at least one block of air above the block that has the rails at the bottom of it, so players dont glitch through blocks.

The minecart dispenser system

This paragraph explains how to build a typical minecart dispenser system for the SRN. If you still feel uncomfortable building this yourself, ask a SRN Line Manager or Conductor for help and they will usually be happy to build this for you.

A note on the size of the minecart dispenser system: In order to fit a minecart dispenser system, there has to be a gap of at least 7 blocks between the trapdoors of two opposing tracks and a gap of a minimum of two blocks between adjacent and parallel tracks is required.

The minecart dispenser system in a typical SRN station consists of the rail line with a activator rail and a detector rail (though these may not be touching) leading to a set of three trapdoors (typically iron) where the detector rail is located right in front of the first trapdoor above ground and a redstone system with a dispenser, a cactus, powered rails, hoppers and typically a double chest underground.

The rail will go downwards on a slope from the trapdoors into the redstone system where they will then go up by one block again and then lead directly to a cactus. Incoming minecarts will come through the trapdoor, go down the track and into the cactus which will break the minecart. A hopper underneath the rail that is directly in front of the cactus will pick up the minecart item once the cart is broken by the cactus. The hopper will transfer the item into a double chest typically located directly next to it. Underneath the double chest another hopper is located that transfers minecarts out of the chest into a dispenser, which is located under the track and pointing up. The rail on a slope directly on top of the dispenser is a powered rail as is at least one more rail on the slope up to the trapdoors. These need to be powered by a redstone source like a redstone torch or lever. These rails provide the speed for the minecart leaving the system, which has to be fast enough so the minecart makes it up through the trapdoors and slow enough so people can catch it and get in before it drives off down the track. The speed can be somewhat adjusted by adding additional powered rails on the slope.

Finally a redstone wire coming from the button on the surface where players can request a minecart has to be connected to the dispenser and via a timer to the activator rail. The activator rail is typically powered and needs to be unpowered for a few seconds when a minecart leaves the system, so players getting into the minecart quickly dont get immediately ejected again once they hit the activator rail.

This is a typical minecart dispenser system, but many variations of this are possible. As long as the system used kicks arriving players out of the minecart and provides a way to request a new minecart for those wanting to leave the station it will work for the SRN, but please check in with a Line Manager and get confirmation from them before opening a station with a new design for the minecart dispenser system.

Rail lines

Rail lines on the SRN connect stations with each other. They are what the minecart travels on between the stations.