In our world, The Repository, most of the biomes we have around us are not good for horse riding, manly because of water, we have a lot of that. Also the dark forest we have to the north and east are quite often too densely packed to transverse by foot let alone on horseback. So as a form of transport horses have been useless up until now.
The horse track and accompanying infrastructure was a big build. There are three inner tracks that are about a thousand blocks and an outer track that runs around the outside of the map and is several thousand blocks long.
Constuction
To make the track work I built two large bridges, many smaller bridges, four long tunnels, six coaching houses, signposts at all the crossroads and the entire thing is lit
The first thing that was done was to upgrade and upsize the stables. It now has room for twelve horses and a very nifty controllable door made from fisherman’s barrels, sticky pistons and all the red stone stuff that goes with it.
A new map room was a must on this build. The map is now 6×6 small maps, which is around 750×750 blocks. (In the picture below Ali has just noticed that I have zoned out during one of her lectures. )
I also added a new house adjoining the stables. It hangs over a very large hole down into the deep dark.
Let’s take a tour of the outer route of the track, traveling first out of the castle stables and heading to the west and then clockwise around the map.
The Track
Out of the stables and the first tunnel is right in front of you. It’s made from muddy mangrove roots and the trees foliage as the ceiling. It does have a bit of a headless horseman feel to it and is dark and never in the sunlight due to its location under a very large Sky island.
As you keep heading west you reach the Ironbridge, a rough copy of the first iron arched bridge, I used polished black stone for the ironwork not iron as it’s too light in colour and a bit precious.
Ride over the Ironbridge and turn left and come back around and under to head north. You are now on the outer road. Continuing west would take you to a train track that goes very far.
As you travel north there are two other smaller bridges and the first coach house (small Inn). I used the same iron arch design on most of the bridges on the outer road.
Once you’re over the pink bridge you’re into the flower fields. It’s a big flower biome. I put a small tower on the edge of the biome and snaked the track around the outside edge of biome, without smashing up much of it.
Once you’re past the flowers it’s a long and fast ride east first through hilly mixed oak and birch woodland then over desolate moorland. There is a signposted road back to the castle.
I built an edgy looking tower at the end of the moorland biome. The tower is in the far north east of the map it’s quite an ugly corner of the map. But from the tower there are views of mountain and jungle. After the tower (Bleak Tower) there is another medium sized iron arched bridge and then you’re heading south though mixed woodland and river.
More bridges then you head (still south) into a long tunnel that travels under a thin but gnarly bit of dark forest, the best way to travel in that sort of terrain is under it. Although, saying that one of the inner tracks has a sky ride over dark forest which works well too.
After about 100 blocks you emerge from the tunnel and you are at this rather nice looking gatehouse. I didn’t spend very long planning or building any of the housing around the track so how they came out was how they came out. I think this bamboo and stone tower came out well enough. The local area is a mix of hilly dark forest, plans and dangerous open top caves. The gatehouse sits at a natural chock point.
After the gate house you are still heading south mostly through more mixed oak woodland. There is a signposted tunnel that leads back to the castle halfway down this section.
Past the tunnel and at the southwest corner of the map you come to the next accommodation. The Bone Inn. This one made from bone block, stone and oak wood. It does its job well, this is quite a dangerous section of track and you can quickly get off your horse and into the building through the stable that is on the lowest floor.
At the Bone Inn you follow the road around to the west and you are soon at the Longbridge. The Longbridge is probably worthy of a post of it’s own. It’s made from smooth stone, red and black concrete, polished deep slate, dirt for the track, stone and cobblestone and a lot of lamps and chains. The lamps cost a gem each so are kind of a big deal I guess.
Head west across the Bridge and over all that nasty looking swamp that used to be so annoying to travel across. The bridge is well over 200 blocks long. There are some small rooms built inside the supports. The bridge took ages to build.
After the Longbridge you’ll skirt though a bit of spruce forest and then into birch highlands.
I built another housing building further down this road in the far southwest of the map. It’s functional with a safe stables on the side and sits between the large spruce and birch forest and on a river. I may extend and improve this house in the future.
Past the brick house (The Woodland Retreat) and now heading north you go up into the birch highlands proper. Out of all the track we built this is the only challenging section to ride. The track zigzags between some quite large drops. There is a lot of incline in this section. The views would be amazing from the top if my phone was able to render that far away.
Ride north down and out of the silverbirch highlands and you have finished the outer route and are back at the Ironbrige. It takes a bit over half a Minecraft day to make the circuit.
Conclusion
It was a lot of work. I really did get carried away with the scale. But it has opened up the map for me and Ali and riding horses fast, safely and for a long way is fun. Happy the job is done and will now take a bit of a breather from building anything new.
The server is on Realms, so if anybody out there fancies playing it, then please feel free to email me and I can send you an invite. charles.isted@outlook.com
Minecraft survival world builds 