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[Knick]

My fortress is in a biome where all the flux and iron are near the surface.  I have set up some magma furnaces and forges at a much lower level.  I need an efficient method of transporting ore to the furnaces.  I would like to set up a minecart track.  I am thinking I will need to make it into a spiral.  I have some questions.

1.  How to I stop the minecarts from moving too fast?  The will need to descend dozens of z-levels, and I understand they may pick up some speed.

2.  How do I move minecarts back to the top again?  Do I need a looping track, or do they simply move backwards on the same track?

3.  Will boulders impede their movement?

[Trif]

1. Build some track stops at the end. You may need a few in a row to stop the minecart.

2. The easiest way is to let a dwarf guide the minecarts up. If you want to automate the process, you'll have to build powered rollers.

3. Rocks or other items on the tracks are no problem.

[Knick]

1. Build some track stops at the end. You may need a few in a row to stop the minecart.

This may be helpful--but I will be building in a spiral shape.  I understand there is a risk of derailing at turns.  Will a track stop halt a minecart altogether, or will it merely slow it down.

I expect to be moving ore from a stockpile near the surface to a stockplile near the magma forges.  How do I make sure minecart is full before it departs?  Do dwarves fill it and send it down?  If so, can it be automated once it is sent?

[Skorpion]

1. Build some track stops at the end. You may need a few in a row to stop the minecart.

This may be helpful--but I will be building in a spiral shape.  I understand there is a risk of derailing at turns.  Will a track stop halt a minecart altogether, or will it merely slow it down.

I expect to be moving ore from a stockpile near the surface to a stockplile near the magma forges.  How do I make sure minecart is full before it departs?  Do dwarves fill it and send it down?  If so, can it be automated once it is sent?

IIRC, you can set track stops so they merely slow carts.
And there's an option for that on the cart. I recommend not setting it to COMPLETELY full, but instead 75%, to allow for being not perfectly filled.

Alternatively, what you can do is be completely fucking lazy, but extremely efficient. Just dump the rocks down a long shaft to near the smelters. Maybe set up bridges triggered by the cart returning from the shaft, so the haulers aren't squashed by the falling ores.

I use a system for this myself, but it's set to guide the entire way up to save on track and injuries. Someone still managed to get maimed, though.

[Trif]

Track stops can slow down or stop a minecart, depending on the friction level. Be aware though that the fastest minecarts can't be completely stopped by only one stop with the highest friction level.
Minecarts won't derail if you build walls around the turns.

You can set things like fullness and departure times in the hauling menu. If you set the minecart to be pushed, it'll move down automatically until it arrives at its goal.

E: Ninjas, damn.

[Uggh]

On the wiki you can find a design to slow down your minecarts in a safe way.

[vanatteveldt]

If I understand your problem correctly you want to transport stuff down from near the surface to near the magma sea?

Why don;t you just drop it down?

on the top level, build a stockpile, track stop, and chute. Set the track stop to dump into the chute.

90 z levels down, just collect the stuff from the chute. If you like your dwarfs, set up a bridge or hatch to make sure that the chute is not in operation while the dwarfs are collection the stuff. You can even automate it using a pressure plate near the chute landing spot to automatically close the bridge/hatch when a dwarf apporaches to collect.

[AlmightyOne]

Why don;t you just drop it down?

Because that's not dwarfy enough. Construct a single spiral track which can be used both ways. Even that's what I'm currently into right now because I really want to use minecarts because they are just too cool. If you want to play it safe, why don't you set it to guide both ways?
Or else you will need a track stop at the end if you want your dwarves to enjoy a nice ride to the depths . Or a even better power it with rollers and guide it back...

[hanni79]

You need this.

With these numbers, you can calculate the max speed at the bottom.If your height difference is really big, simply assume they are at max speed and put 5 Track Stops in a row set to highest (=50000 Brake) plus two set two high (=10000 Brake) to equal the maximum possible energy of a minecart (=270000).

A Track Stop should be renamed Track Brake. It has basically two functions :
1. To brake by a set amount of energy
2. To dump the contents of a minecart if it actually stops there, if set to do so.
For moving them back up, you will need Rollers. I sadly have no clue where I got that number, but I think a roller gives 1250 Energy per til if set to highest. So A Roller with 10 length and highest mode should be able to move up a Minecart 2 Ramps (costs 5010 each). I'm not sure about this though.
To prevent derailing, curves in your track should be completely surrounded by walls. I remember a bug that they can teleport through walls with only 1 tile thickness if they are to fast when moving around corners.

Hope that helped a bit

[Skorpion]

Will a wall make a runaway cart stop dead at the end of a long downhill run?

[hanni79]

I'm pretty sure it would, but as far as I understood this should also dump out any contents against the wall - at full speed. So I would at least try to avoid Dwarves riding the minecarts for !!SCIENCE!!. (Or maybe let your Dwarves ride them exactly due to that possibility )

[Skorpion]

I'm pretty sure it would, but as far as I understood this should also dump out any contents against the wall - at full speed. So I would at least try to avoid Dwarves riding the minecarts for !!SCIENCE!!. (Or maybe let your Dwarves ride them exactly due to that possibility )

So it'd work as a dump stop AS WELL?

This is interesting. Also, what happens when the contents of a cart are dumped out by a track stop, but the cart doesn't stop or slow? Do they get scattered?