Minecraft Activator Rail

Minecraft Activator Rail

Activator Rail

Transparent	Yes
Luminance	0
Blast resistance	3.5

Renewable	Yes
Stackable	Yes (64)
Flammable	No
Drops	Itself

Obtaining

Activator rails can be crafted and previously-placed activator rails can be broken with bare hands or any tool, dropping themselves as items.

Breaking

An activator rail can be broken with any tool, dropping itself as an item, but a pickaxe is fastest. To break an activator rail, mine it:

Block	Activator Rail
Hardness	0.7
Tool	Pickaxe
Breaking time[note 1]
Hand	1.05
Wooden	0.55
Stone	0.3
Iron	0.2
Diamond	0.15
Golden	0.1

1. Jump up↑ Times are for unenchanted tools in seconds. For more information, see Haste § Instant mining.

An activator rail also drops as an items when the block beneath it is removed, water flows over it, or a piston moves it into a space with no floor below it. If lava flows into an activator rail's space, the activator rail is destroyed without dropping itself as an item.

Natural generation

Activator rails can be found in 27.1% of chest minecarts in Mineshafts in stacks of 1–4.

Usage

Placement

An activator rail can be used as a rail and as a redstone component.

To place an activator rail, use an activator rail item while pointing at a surface facing the space the activator rail should occupy. An activator rail can be placed on:

• the top of any full solid opaque block (stone, dirt, blocks of gold, etc.), including full-block mechanism components (command blocks, dispensers, droppers, note blocks, and redstone lamps)
• the top of a hopper, upside-down slab, or upside-down stairs.

An activator rail cannot be attached to the side or bottom of any block, but attempting to make such an attachment may cause the activator rail to attach to the top of a block under the destination space. For example, if a fence is on the ground, attempting to attach an activator rail to the side of the fence causes the activator rail to be attached to the top of the ground next to the fence instead.

When placed, an activator rail configures itself to line up with any adjacent rails (including detector rails, powered rails, and other activator rails), as well as adjacent rails one block up. If there are two adjacent rails on non-opposite sides, or three or more adjacent rails, an activator rail aligns itself in the east-west direction. If there are no adjacent rails, an activator rail aligns itself in the north-south direction (but if a rail is later placed to the east or west, the activator rail re-orients itself in the east-west direction even if it is already connected to another rail to the north or south). If a rail it would align with is one block up, an activator rail slants upward toward it (with multiple options to slant upward to, an activator rail "prefers", in order: west, east, south, and north). Other configurations can be created by placing and removing various rails.

Rail

Main article: Rail

Activator rails (and other rails) can be used as "roads" for minecarts. A minecart that enters an activator rail's space from either end of the activator rail continues to move, losing only a little velocity (which can then be increased again with powered rails). A minecart that enters an activator rail's space from the side turns east or south (depending on the activator rail's orientation), or in the downward direction for a slanted activator rail.

Redstone component

See also: Redstone circuit

Activator rails can be used to affect minecarts that travel over them.

Activation

An activator rail is a redstone mechanism and can be activated by:

• an adjacent active power component (for example, a redstone torch, a block of redstone, a daylight sensor, etc.)
• an adjacent powered block (strongly-powered or weakly-powered)
• a powered redstone comparator or redstone repeater facing the activator rail
• powered redstone dust configured to point at the activator rail, or a directionless "dot" next to it; an activator rail is not activated by adjacent powered redstone dust that is configured to point in another direction.

An activated activator rail also activates any adjacent activator rails it is connected to, up to eight away from the original activation source. Thus a single activation source can activate up to 17 rails (one original in the middle and eight on either side). An activated activator rail does not activate adjacent rails not connected to it.

Behavior

An activator rail affects minecarts above it with varying effects that occur as soon as any part of the minecart is on the activator rail.

An active activator rail:

• ejects mobs (including players) from minecarts as if a player had used the sneak control to exit the minecart (by default, one block to the right of the direction the minecart is moving and up to two blocks up, unless blocked)
• repeatedly activates command block minecarts — a command block minecart executes its command every four game ticks until the command block minecart is no longer on the activator rail
• disables hopper minecarts — a disabled hopper minecart cannot pick up items it travels through until it is enabled by an inactive activator rail (or until it is broken and re-placed)
• primes TNT minecarts — primed TNT minecarts explode after four seconds with an explosive power proportional to their speed over the activator rail.

An inactive activator rail enables hopper minecarts — an enabled hopper minecart picks up items it travels through until it is disabled by an active activator rail.

Data values

Block data

See also: Data values

In Bedrock Edition, an activator rail's block data stores its orientation and activation status:

Bits	Values
0x1 0x2 0x4	A three-bit field storing a value from 0 to 5: 0: flat track going north-south 1: flat track going west-east 2: sloped track ascending to the east 3: sloped track ascending to the west 4: sloped track ascending to the north 5: sloped track ascending to the south
0x8	Set if rail is active.

Block states

See also: Block states

Java Edition:

Name	Default value	Allowed values	Description
powered	false	false true	True if rail is activated.
shape	north_south	east_west north_south	Specifies the rail's orientation.
		ascending_east ascending_north ascending_south ascending_west	A rail that ascends towards the direction noted. For example, an ascending_west rail is a straight rail that goes upwards from the east towards the west.

History

Java Edition
1.5		13w02a			Added activator rail.
		13w02b			Changed crafting recipe to include sticks and redstone torch. Previously, It requires only 6 iron ingots vertically at the end.
		13w03a			Activated activator rails disable minecarts with hoppers.
1.7.2		13w39a			Activated activator rails activate minecarts with command blocks.
1.8		14w05a			Activated activator rails eject players and mobs from minecarts.
1.9		15w39a			Dismounting location is now predictable. Entities dismount from vehicle (boats, minecarts, horses) by the right side relative to the motion of the vehicle. If the right side is unavailable, the other potential locations are tested in this order : Right, Left, Back Right, Back Left, Front Right, Front Left, Back, Front.
		15w44a			Activator rails can now be found in abandoned mineshaft chest minecarts.
1.11		16w32b			All rail types' hitbox heights are decreased from a full block to a half block.
1.13		17w47a			Prior to The Flattening, this block's numeral ID was 157.
1.14		18w43a			Changed activator rail textures.
Pocket Edition Alpha
0.13.0		build 1			Added activator rails.
0.14.0		build 1			Activator rails can be found inside minecart with chest in mineshaft.
Legacy Console Edition
TU19	CU7	1.10	Patch 1		Added activator rails.
TU31	CU19	1.22	Patch 3		Activated activator rails eject players and mobs from minecarts.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0					Added Activator Rails.

Issues

Issues relating to "Activator Rail" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

See also

• Rail
• Powered Rail
• Detector Rail