Top 3 ways to use powered rails in Minecraft

When added to a regular railway, Minecraft's powered rails allow for efficient travel over the dangerous lands of the Overworld and Nether. Many players will not build a railway unless they have powered rails, since they are highly inefficient without them. However, powered rails can be used correctly and incorrectly.

Incorrect usage of powered rails will most likely result in a waste of the players' valuable resources. Since powered rails require a decent amount of gold and redstone, it is important that the player spreads out these rails as much as possible to save countless trips to the mine.

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3 best ways to efficiently utilize powered rails in Minecraft

3) Maintain top speed

A railway with powered rails being powered with redstone blocks (Image via u/the_Smurf58skii on Reddit)

When traveling over a powered rail, a minecart will quickly pick up speed. However, this speed will drop off after a certain amount of blocks.

After traveling through three powered rails in a row, the minecart (with a player inside) will begin to move at its top speed. This speed can be maintained by placing a powered rail every 38 blocks after the initial three powered rails.

This will allow the player to maintain top speed for the whole ride, which is extremely efficient for the player's time and resources.

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2) Powering the Powered Rails

A Minecraft player powering their rails with redstone torches under the block (Image via windowscentral)

After placing their powered rails, players will quickly realize that they need to be powered by redstone to function properly.

This can also be made efficient with a few techniques. The best technique is seen above, where the player is placing a redstone torch under the block that the rail is placed upon. However, this technique may not work in scenarios where the player can't place a torch under the block.

In that scenario, the player can either place a redstone torch to the side of the block, or they can place the powered rail on top of a redstone block, which will power the rail indefinitely.

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1) Detector Rails + Powered Rails

Detector rails with an amazing shader and resource pack (Image via u/dessie84 on Reddit)

Detector rails are another amazing technique when combined with powered rails.

When placed before a powered rail, a detector rail will power the powered rail when a minecart rides over it. Adding these rails to a railway will make the technique listed above completely obsolete, as redstone torches or blocks are not required for powered rails to activate.

The video above showcases how to use detector and powered rails to create the above effect in Minecraft.

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