I added track "stop" constructions, which greatly increase the friction in a square and cause (most) carts to stop (say, blocks, narrowing grooves, whatever might work).
So he is modeling friction. Perpetual motion machines are going to be tricky. I wonder if we can carve/build rails under water, or if magma-safe rails will indeed survive contact with magma. If that's the case, will rail tiles covered in water/magma have higher friction? If a track ends without a stop block, will the cart keep going, subject to a higher friction value for non-rail tiles?
I sincerely hope we get a new type of drawbridge with built-in rails.
There are constructed tracks, and bridges now also act as tracks. Pressure plates can be given a weight range for being triggered by carts.
I asked, and I have received! With a heaping helping of pressure plate logic on the side! It is clear that we must time a cart moving over a pressure plate at max speed such that the cart is on top of the connected drawbridge by the time the raise signal propagates. To see what happens. For !!SCIENCE!!
There are powered "rollers" placed in strips that increase the speed of minecarts in a given direction, up to a point (more than enough to get them up a ramp, anyway).
Toady One, if you are reading this, please for the love of Armok make this maximum speed moddable. Maybe as a tag for the roller object, in a manner that allows different max speeds for rollers made out of different materials.