Minecraft: How to Craft Rails and Where To Find Them in Your World

One of the most common transportation means in the world of Minecraft is the minecart. These are entities that you can get inside and ride. However, you also can’t have a minecart without rails. These non-solid blocks can be easily crafted but also generate naturally in your world. There are several rail variants in-game, most of which have redstone-related functions. However, in this guide, we will focus on the simplest rail of them all and show you how you can create and use it in Minecraft.

Resources required to make rails

According to the recognition, you need iron to make rails, so crafting them is not the cheapest. The crafting recipe to make rails in Minecraft requires the following items:

•    6 Iron Ingots
•    1 Stick
•    Crafting Table

However, this recipe generates 16 rails as a result, which is more than a relief. So, if you need a lot of rails, we recommend that you build an iron farm first, so you can make sure that all your iron supplies are not spent on making rails.

Also, as is the case with most recipes, you will also need a crafting table. We have already prepared a dedicated guide on how to make a crafting table, so you can check it out if you are a beginner.

How to Craft Minecraft Rails

Step 1: After collecting iron ingots, a stick, and a crafting table, follow these steps to make regular rails:
Step 2: Place the crafting table in your world and right-click on it to open it.
Step 3: Place three iron ingots to start this recipe, which completely fills the left column of the grid.
Step 4: Repeat the same thing for the right column. Therefore, only the middle column should be empty.
Step 5: Finally, place a stick in the center of the crafting grid.
Step 6: Congratulations! You have successfully built rails in the game. To craft click on the Rails item on the right and move them to your Inventory.

Alternatively, you can use a crafter in Minecraft instead of a crafting table, but you will need to provide it with a redstone signal if you want to craft it.

Where can you find Rails in your world

Rails generate naturally in two Minecraft structures. The first is quite fitting – Abandoned Mines. They are underground structures that stretch out in all directions, as well as vertically. The corridors are tight and dark, so fighting mobs is inevitable. However, another danger awaits you in these haunted tunnels, special monster spawners.
They are especially Cave Spiders, poison-spawning Minecraft mobs that can be quite tricky to deal with, especially if you are outnumbered. Mineshafts are quite common, so it won’t take you too long to find one. Rails here also generate occasionally on the floor and in Minecart Chests.

On the other hand, the other structure where rails generate naturally are Forest Mansions. These huge surface buildings are much more dangerous than mines. They are filled with regular enemy mobs, as well as powerful cures. They are evil versions of villagers and one of the strongest enemy mobs in the game.

Also, rails only generate in one room of the forest mansion, so finding these won't be that easy. Therefore, it's better to stick with mines if you can't craft rails.

Also Read: How to Build a Wool Farm in Minecraft: A Step-by-Step Guide

How to Use Rails and Minecarts in Minecraft

The main function of rails is to provide minecarts with a path along which they can travel. You can place these blocks by simply right-clicking on top of blocks that have a full surface. This includes full solid blocks as well as inverted stairs and top-half slabs.

There are many ways to place and connect rails, and this greatly determines the movement path of the minecart.
The mechanics behind this can be difficult to explain due to their complexity and specificity. Therefore, we suggest checking out this article on the Minecraft Wiki related to rail positioning and orientation. Also, unlike powered rails, regular rails do not provide any momentum to the Minecart. Therefore, a track made of only normal rails will not let the Minecart travel very far, unless it is built on a slope.

Also, to make them more player-friendly, regular rails can interact with redstone. This is the case with a curved rail that is connected to one rail track but also next to another track. Powering that curved rail with a lever will force it to switch between the two tracks, for example.

Due to the ability to place rails in different ways and their transparent appearance, players like to use them as decorative additions to their home constructions as well. Typically, rails represent some sort of rope that holds a wooden stockpile or maybe cargo on a truck in one place. Other than that, rails can depict anything your imagination desires.