Create: Physical Railways

Create: Physical Railways

Build your own physical trains on Create tracks.

Create: Physical Railways is a railway addon built on Create and Sable. Construct your own carriage bodies, fit them with physical bogeys, couple them together, and drive them along Create’s railway network.

Operate your train directly from its controls, or install a Create schedule for automatic journeys between stations. The project aims to bring physical trains into Create’s existing railway gameplay while retaining free-form construction, physical collisions, and movement between separate carriages.

⚠ Unstable Alpha

This is an experimental Alpha test version. Stability and data safety are not guaranteed.

Crashes, severe stuttering, unexpected vehicle behavior, and world data issues may occur. Multiplayer behavior, save recovery, long-term performance, and some optional integrations still need further testing.

Back up your world before playing. A dedicated test world is strongly recommended. This version is not recommended for important worlds or servers that require reliable, long-term operation.

Features

Build your own carriages

Construct carriage bodies from blocks and support them with physical bogeys. Multiple bogeys can be fitted under the same body, allowing different carriage layouts.

Power and direct driving controls

Supply Create rotational power and operate the train by aiming at individual parts of the controls:

• Use the lever for traction, coasting, and braking.
• Use the emergency stop button when needed.
• Preselect left or right at the next junction.
• Open the settings to adjust notch speeds, change direction, and manage the train’s name.

Available power and the train’s load affect its performance.

Couple a complete train

Use couplers and the coupling tool to connect separate physical carriages. The primary controls command supported bogeys throughout the coupled train, while trailing bogeys and carriages follow the leading vehicle through junctions.

Run with Create schedules

Install a Create schedule in the train controls to manage destinations, throttle limits, journey titles, and wait conditions.

Pause, resume, skip, or restart a schedule. Supported conditions include time, redstone, cargo quantities, cargo inactivity, and players seated in Create seats. Package tasks require suitable docking facilities.

Connect with railway infrastructure

Physical trains integrate with Create stations, signals, train observers, and display links, providing information such as station presence, track occupancy, destinations, and journey progress.

Automatic operation responds to signals. Manual driving reports occupancy but does not enforce stops at red signals.

Transport cargo and passengers

Cargo information comes from actual onboard containers and tanks. Coupling carriages does not automatically connect their inventories: items and fluids still need real transfer paths.

Simulated docking integration provides supported item and fluid transfer paths, with railway docking facilities enabling package collection and delivery.

Learn through Ponder

English and Simplified Chinese Ponder tutorials cover construction, driving, coupling, schedules, cargo handling, and optional integrations.

Requirements

For Minecraft 1.21.1 — NeoForge.

The current development dependency set is:

• NeoForge 21.1.264
• Create 6.0.10
• Sable 2.0.6

Install this mod and its required dependencies on both the client and server, including any additional dependencies required by Create and Sable. Use the same version of Physical Railways on both sides.

Optional integrations

• Steam ’n’ Rails — Additional track gauges, monorails, and corresponding bogey styles.
• Blocks & Bogies — Bogey style selection, models, and animations.
• Electro Energetics — Overhead wire and pantograph-powered traction.
• Simulated — Item, fluid, and docking integration.
• Xaero’s Minimap — Physical train markers.

Optional integrations remain under testing. Support for an integration does not imply support for every feature of that mod.

Getting started

Open Ponder on the physical bogey, coupler, coupling tool, and train controls items for construction and operating instructions.

Aim directly at the part you want to operate. Hold right-click on the lever and drag or scroll to change notches. Right-click the emergency stop or junction selector, and sneak-right-click the controls to open settings.

Current limitations

• Physical trains cannot travel between dimensions.
• Create stations do not assemble or disassemble physical trains.
• Stations do not automatically exchange schedules with physical trains.
• Manual driving does not enforce stops at red signals.
• Create’s Portable Storage and Portable Fluid Interfaces cannot directly service physical bodies.
• Third-party schedule instructions, wait conditions, and railway control interfaces are not universally supported.
• This mod does not yet reproduce every feature of Create’s native trains.

Feedback and source

Please include your mod versions, dependency list, reproduction steps, and relevant logs when reporting a problem. Screenshots or videos are helpful for vehicle behavior and interaction issues.

Report an issue · Source code

AI tools assisted with code, documentation, and some art assets in this project.

This project uses the MIT License. Third-party mods and their assets remain subject to their respective licenses.