Detector Rail

Detector Rail

Renewable	Yes
Stackable	Yes (64)
Tool
Blast resistance	0.7
Hardness	0.7
Luminous	No
Transparent	Yes
Waterloggable	Yes
Flammable	No
Catches fire from lava	No
Map color	0 NONE
Note block instrument	Default (Harp)

The detector rail is a type of rail that produces a redstone signal while a minecart is on it.

Obtaining

Breaking

The suitable tool to break detector rail is pickaxe.

Block	Detector Rail
Hardness	0.7
Tool
Breaking time (sec)[A]
Default	11.05 (JE) 1.05 (BE)
Wooden	10.55 (JE) 0.55 (BE)
Stone	10.3 (JE) 0.3 (BE)
Copper	10.25 (JE) 0.25 (BE)
Iron	10.2 (JE) 0.2 (BE)
Diamond	10.15 (JE) 0.15 (BE)
Netherite	10.15 (JE) 0.15 (BE)
Golden	10.1 (JE) 0.1 (BE)
Options
Efficiency	000
Haste	001 1JEBE

Legend

• incorrect tool, drops nothing
• correct tool, drops nothing or something other than the block itself
• correct tool, drops the block itself
• italicized can be instant mined

Detector rail drops itself when it's destroyed.

Generated loot

Item	Structure	Container	Quantity	Chance
Java Edition and Bedrock Edition
Detector Rail	Mineshaft	Chest not located in a sulfur cave	1–4	27.1% { "item": "Detector Rail", "stacksize": "1–4", "chance": 0.271, "structure": "Mineshaft", "container": "Chest not located in a sulfur cave" }
	Mineshaft	Chest located in a sulfur cave	1–4	23% { "item": "Detector Rail", "stacksize": "1–4", "chance": 0.22974537037037035, "structure": "Mineshaft", "container": "Chest located in a [[sulfur cave]]" }

Crafting

Ingredients	Crafting recipe
Iron Ingot + Stone Pressure Plate + Redstone Dust	6

Usage

To place a detector rail, use a detector rail item while pointing at a surface facing the space the detector rail should occupy.

A detector rail can be placed on top of any block whose top face has a rim around the edge, such as any full block, hopper, top slab, upside-down stairs, or top trapdoor. A full list of compatible blocks can be found here.

If a detector rail is updated while on an opened top trapdoor, the rail breaks and drops as an item. Placing a minecart on a detector rail on top of a closed and unpowered trapdoor opens the trapdoor and updates the rail, causing the detector rail to break. If the top trapdoor is powered and closed when the minecart is placed, the trapdoor does not open so the rail does not break. The minecart on the detector rail then powers the trapdoor, meaning the external power source can be removed without causing the trapdoor to change state and break the rail.

When placed, a detector rail configures itself to line up with any adjacent rails (including activator rails, powered rails, and other detector 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, a detector rail lines up in the east-west direction. If there are no adjacent rails, a detector rail lines up in the north-south direction (but if a rail is later placed to the east or west, the detector 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 line up with is one block up, a detector rail slants upward toward it (with multiple options to slant upward to, a detector rail "prefers", in order: west, east, south, and north). Other configurations can be created by placing and removing various rails.

Mobs avoid walking across a detector rail (or other rails), but can be pushed onto them.

Rail

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

Redstone component

A detector rail becomes powered when any part of any minecart's bounding box comes into contact with it. Every 20th game tick after the rail first becomes powered, it checks whether any minecart is still present and depowers if there are none in contact at that time. This means that the duration of the signal is always a multiple of 20 game ticks (10 redstone ticks). While powered, a detector rail:

• sets adjacent redstone dust to power level 15
• activates adjacent redstone repeaters facing away from the detector rail
• activates adjacent redstone comparators facing away from the detector rail to a level corresponding to the fullness of the minecart if it is a minecart with chest or a minecart with hopper
• strongly powers the block supporting the detector rail if that block is conductive
• activates any adjacent mechanism components, including above or below, such as pistons, redstone lamps, powered rails, hoppers, etc.

If the minecart on the detector rail is a minecart with chest or minecart with hopper, an adjacent redstone comparator facing away from the detector rail outputs a power level proportional to the container's fullness, possibly power level 0. For any other type of minecart (including a regular minecart with a mob riding it) the comparator's output is zero. If multiple minecarts are on the detector rail, the comparator reads only the minecart that was placed first.

A comparator can read the contents of a minecart with hopper or with chest on a detector rail through a solid opaque block, as it can with other container blocks.

Mob interaction

Like other types of rails, mobs avoid walking on detector rails, with the exception of spiders, cave spiders, and wardens.

Piston interactivity

Detector rails can be pushed by pistons, and can be pulled by sticky pistons. However, a detector rail breaks and drops as an item when it becomes unsupported as a result of being moved.

Sounds

Java Edition:

metal sound type
Sound	Closed captions	Source	Description	Identifier	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
	​Block broken	Blocks	Once the block has broken	block.metal.break	subtitles.block.generic.break​	1.0	1.2	16
	​Block placed​[until: JE 26.4]	Blocks	When the block is placed	block.metal.place	subtitles.block.generic.place​	1.0	1.2	16
	​Block breaking	Blocks	While the block is in the process of being broken	block.metal.hit	subtitles.block.generic.hit​	0.25	0.75	16
	​Something falls on a block	Entity-Dependent	Falling on the block with fall damage	block.metal.fall	subtitles.block.generic.fall​	0.5	1.25	16
	​Footsteps	Entity-Dependent	Walking on the block	block.metal.step	subtitles.block.generic.footsteps​	0.15	1.5	16

Bedrock Edition:

metal sound type
Sound	Closed captions	Source	Description	Identifier	Translation key	Volume	Pitch
	​Block broken	Blocks	Once the block has broken	dig.stone	subtitles.block.generic.break​	1.0	1.1–1.2
	​Block placed	Blocks	When the block is placed	use.stone	subtitles.block.generic.place​	1.0	1.2–1.25
	​Block breaking	Blocks	While the block is in the process of being broken	hit.stone	subtitles.block.generic.hit​	0.3	0.75
	​Footsteps	Players	Falling on the block with fall damage	fall.stone	subtitles.block.generic.footsteps​	0.4	1.0
	​Footsteps	Players	Walking on the block	step.stone	subtitles.block.generic.footsteps​	0.35	1.0
	​Footsteps	Blocks	Jumping from the block	jump.stone	subtitles.block.generic.footsteps​	0.12	1.0
	​Footsteps	Blocks	Falling on the block without fall damage	land.stone	subtitles.block.generic.footsteps​	0.22	1.0

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

Name	Identifier	Form	Block tags	Item tags	Translation key
Detector Rail	detector_rail	Block & Item	prevent_mob_spawning_inside rails	rails	block.minecraft.detector_rail

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Identifier	Numeric ID	Form	Item ID[i 1]	Translation key
Detector Rail	detector_rail	28	Block & Giveable Item[i 2]	Identical[i 3]	tile.detector_rail.name

Block states

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Videos

History

Java Edition

Java Edition Beta
1.5							Added detector rails.
Java Edition
1.0.0			Beta 1.9 Prerelease 6				Detector rails are now broken faster using a pickaxe.
1.3.1			12w21a				Detector rails are now renewable, due to redstone dust being obtainable from trading.
1.5			13w10a				A distinct texture for active detector rails has now been added.
1.8			14w04a				If a detector rail is set to render as the block inside of a minecart via commands or map editing, it now appears as this (previously it would be entirely invisible).
			14w28a				Sloped detector rails no longer decrease their hitbox to 2 pixels of a block when activated.
1.9			15w38a				All sloped rail types' hitbox heights have been decreased from 10 pixels of a block to about 2.5 pixels of a block.
			15w44a				Detector rails can now be found in chest minecarts in mineshafts.
			15w46a				Mobs no longer spawn on detector rails.
1.10			16w21a				All sloped rail types' hitbox heights have been increased from about 2.5 pixels of a block to a full block.
1.11			16w32b				All sloped rail types' hitbox heights have now been decreased from a full block to a half block.
1.14			18w43a				The textures of detector rails have now been changed.
			19w12b				Detector rails can now be placed on glass, ice, glowstone and sea lanterns.
1.17			20w45a				All rail types can now be waterlogged.

Bedrock Edition

Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.13.0			build 1				Added detector rails.
v0.14.0			build 1				Detector rails can now be found inside minecarts with chests in mineshafts.
Bedrock Edition
1.7.0			beta 1.7.0.2				Rails are once again broken by flowing water. Previously it flowed through the rails.
1.10.0			beta 1.10.0.3				The textures of detector rails have now been changed.

Legacy Console Edition

Legacy Console Edition
Xbox 360	Xbox One	PS3	PS4	PS Vita	Wii U	Switch
TU1	CU1	1.00	1.00	1.00	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added detector rails.
TU46	CU36	1.38	1.38	1.38	Patch 15		All sloped rail types' hitbox heights have been increased from 10 pixels of a block to a full block.
TU54	CU44	1.52	1.52	1.52	Patch 24	1.0.4	All sloped rail types' hitbox heights have now been decreased from a full block to a half block.
TU69		1.76	1.76	1.76	Patch 38		All types of rails can now be waterlogged and are no longer destroyed by flowing water. Instead it flows right through them.
			1.90				The textures of detector rails have now been changed.

New Nintendo 3DS Edition

New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0							Added detector rails.

Data history

Java Edition
1.8			14w10a				Detector rails with numerical metadata variants 6, 7, 14 and 15, which are inaccessible through normal gameplay or even commands and as such require the use of external editors to exist, now have no model . Their appearances prior to this point were unknown.
			14w25a				Detector rails are now defined via block states rather than by numerical metadata. Prior to this version, the numerical metadata variants of the detector rail were as follows: DV Description 0 Unpowered north-south 1 Unpowered east-west 2 Unpowered ascending east 3 Unpowered ascending west 4 Unpowered ascending north 5 Unpowered ascending south 6-7 Inaccessible - behavior unknown 8 Powered north-south 9 Powered east-west 10 Powered ascending east 11 Powered ascending west 12 Powered ascending north 13 Powered ascending south 14-15 Inaccessible - behavior unknown
			14w26a				Detector rails with metadata values 6, 7, 14 and 15 have now been completely removed from the game.
1.13			17w47a				Prior to The Flattening, this block's numeral ID was 28.

Issues

Issues relating to "Detector Rail" are maintained on the bug tracker. Issues should be reported and viewed there.

Gallery

Screenshots

• 
  Image from Notch’s twitter teasing detector rails

See also

• Rail
• Activator Rail
• Powered Rail