Uh, so yeah, What The Actual F...
I'm working with minecarts, on a long-standing dream project of mine. I can't get them to work in the most minimal of ways.
I set up a hatch with a switch over a channeled-out ramp with a section of straight track on it. Seven adjacents to the ramp are solid walls, the eighth is open ground. Straight track laid over the ramp. Put cart on the hatch, throw the switch. The cart drops onto the track and ramp, and just sits there, unmoving.
OK, fine, I've obviously done something wrong. Let's try another way. I set up another hole with a hatch over a powered roller. The roller is powered with a Dwarven Water Reactor, via gear assemblies and axles. The reactor works, axles and rollers are powered - this is confirmed by the animations they show when turning in-game. Throw the switch, open the hatch, drop the cart. Cart falls on the powered, operating rollers... and just sits there, unmoving. The rollers are rolling under the cart, which doesn't move. A dorf comes to reclaim the cart and reposition it on its starting hatch, and the dorf's movement is dramatically affected by the roller motion, going very fast with the roller and very slowly against it. But the cart doesn't move.
I will admit to being very frustrated. I've obviously spent a lot of time setting up the mechanics for this whole thing, which is only a small trial prototype of my larger design idea, and it's total failure from step zero, before ever even getting off the ground. And with such an inexplicable problem no less.
Anyone have any ideas for a lost overseer?