014: Ballantrae Station
This one starts with a redstone torch on a roadside cobblestone block because that’s the Z 3000 block marker. This line started up above the effective equator, at a station with a Z value of about -130. We’ve come south over 3000 blocks to get to this point, and I marked it because I’m that much of a nerd. But then you knew that, I mean, you’re reading this far into a blog about Minecraft, right?
The name was chosen because it’s out on the coast in an area roughly shaped like the UK and that’s the town that’s in the same basic location. This was built as the staging point for the Woodland Mansion effort, hence the turn in the skyway just past the station building. The bamboo had become standard by now, as a way of marking the station visually from a distance. Yeah, there’s a merchant photobombing, these guys turn up all the way up on a skyway over a swamp, can’t get away from them.
Instead of the usual full frontal shot, let’s look at it from a slight angle, where we can see the first block that supports the bamboo, the minecart launchers, and the skyway taking off for the Woodland Mansion.
The banglevator out behind the station, also known as a water source block that creates a more or less mob proof vertical route. Yeah, there’s a boat parked down there, which I used to go out to the icebergs south of the Woodland Mansion skyway, more about those some other time. I find it interesting that all water blocks in a swamp biome turn that murky green regardless of where you brought them from. The term I use for a waterfall elevator comes from a 1970s kid’s game called Bing Bang Boing, that was one of my favorite toys when I was twelve. Yeah, I have my own private nicknames for stuff in-game, you don’t?
Bog-standard layout here, torches flanking the Imperial banner, redundant lanterns in the corners because they look cool, plain white bed because I went out and mugged a sheep rather than trucking all the way back to the Castle when I ran out of yellow wool.
Cobblestone floor because this is a skyway platform, cobblestone roof because I had a lot left over after building the railway all the way down here, granite walls again because handy materials. I was a lot more focused on the goal of the railway rather than the appearance of the stations, and it really shows.
This section was added well after the Woodland Mansion adventure was over. When I brought the Bee Line down to the 3000 point, to extend the world map, I ran a connector line from its terminus over to Ballantrae. Seemed like the thing to do at the time.
Next stop, the Woodland Mansion and the terminus of the Great Southern Railway, and a lot more of the political ranting that this blog advertises, I promise.
