I need to know,
- Can impulse ramps provide enough force to raise an iron minecart full of magma?
- How many impulse ramps would I need per z-level of elevation?
- Is a dwarf's Push sufficient to make the first derail happen, on level ground?
- Do the impulse ramps need adjacent walls, like the climbing ramps do?
If you check my sig, those two links will probably let you know everything you need to know. However.
Iron Minecart full of magma: Yes, provided you can get it OUT of the magma. This is the one place I haven't explored impulse ramps completely. Once the cart is free all carts act pretty similarly. I recommend testing it with 2 impulses to get one ramp up unless you can get a single wide ramp to work. IE: Track down, impulse, impulse, track up. Should act pretty similar to water if you want to test the design. Actually, I need to do that at some point. I'll let you know if I do.
1 Impulse/2 zs. Do NOT use the one on the wiki unless you want derails and/or rocking horses. It is, at best, unpredictable. In the elevator you want: flat turn, impulse ramp, upward curving ramp, straight upward ramp, repeat.
Yes. Easily. You won't derail a turn from a dwarf's push, but you'll easily skip onto the impulse ramp.
Yes. They don't need an open space above them but I recommend it to shunt speed problems out of a rocking horse scenario. Trust me, you just don't want to go there unless your hospital needs a lot of training.
Edit: Easiest way for a 'carried' minecart is to setup a 3 stop route. First one is the push into the magma. Second is a non-dumping track stop after it's loaded. Third one is way up wherever that you have dorfs guide it to (basically, up your stairwell) to the track stop dump. Then they guide it again down to the first place. Doing that with a metal minecart is painful to watch, but can be done. If you can, get nethercap wood for minecarts so they're a lot lighter and still magma-proof. I still recommend the elevator.