Tracks finished!

I finished laying the tracks for my railway. I started building a railway station at my "respawn point" and devised an automated cart delivery system. In an ideal world, every time I respawn there will be a train waiting to take me back to my floating castle. However, this world isn't ideal.

I knew I'd have to do something about all the animals at some point. They seem to be abnormally attracted to the train tracks. Rather than being crushed if they're hit by my train, they just stop progress. This was my biggest worry as I took my very first train trip from beach to castle.

The sun was setting as I left, and by the time I reached the waterfall tunnel it was dark.

What comes out of the dark? Oh yeah, monsters. Skeletal archers, actually... about five of them.

I wasn't too worried at first. It seemed like they were having trouble hitting a moving target, but as I emerged from one of my many tunnels, an archer somewhere above me hit me with several arrows and killed me.

As soon as it was light, I ran out to where I had died. All my gear was gone, and so was the train engine - only the passenger car remained. I searched all along the track and didn't find it. I think I'm going to have to elevate my tracks and provide some sort of protection for myself.

Amazing Feats of Engineering

So it turns out a powered mine cart can't haul my fat ass up the mountain side. I guess I really should have checked on that before I started all this work.

I look online and I see that in order to push you up a hill, it has to be a very gradual incline. In order to accommodate this, I'm going to have to start a bridge from (at least) the small foothill on the far side of the lake. So, I start to build.

This bridge takes a long time, and during the night I find refuge in caves to keep myself safe from the zombies and creepers. On one evening I hear the sound of running water and realize that with a small diversion I can send my railway right through a waterfall. I've got to do it!

While I'm doing this, I realize that water can be diverted and transplanted in interesting ways. I think it's a shame that my floating island doesn't have a clichéd impossible waterfall, so I add one:

On the right, you can see my massive rail bridge in progress.