How to duplicate rails in Minecraft

Are you running out of rails for your minecart system in Minecraft? Lacking the resources to craft more? There's good news, as both of these issues can be addressed through the use of a single in-game glitch that can duplicate existing rails and provide you with all the rails you need. The setup process can be tricky, but once the duplication build is finished, you can endlessly make rails in-game.

Keep in mind that this duplication trick will require at least two existing rails of any type and a few additional blocks to set up a redstone-powered contraption. It's also worth noting that this trick currently works in Minecraft 1.20 but may be patched out in future updates depending on changes by Mojang.

With all of that in mind, it's best to dive in and cover the steps of building the duplication machine.

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How to build a rail duper in Minecraft 1.20

The completed rail duper in Minecraft 1.20 (Image via Mojang)

To get started with this duplication machine in Minecraft, you'll need the following resources:

• Three ordinary building blocks of any type
• Four slime blocks
• Three observers
• One sticky piston
• One lever
• Two rails of any type that you want to duplicate

Once you've collected or crafted the materials you need, you can build the duping machine with the following steps:

1. Begin by placing your three building blocks vertically and placing the lever on top of them.
2. On the front of the topmost block of the stack, place your sticky piston.
3. Place your slime blocks to create a large square, with the top left slime block covering the face of the sticky piston.
4. Place two observers on the bottom row of slime blocks and ensure that the observers' arrows are pointing upward.
5. On top of the slime block connected to the sticky piston, place another observer and ensure that its arrow is pointing toward the lever.
6. Lastly, take your rails and place them across the top of the observers placed in step 4.

The completed rail duper in Minecraft before activation (Image via Mojang)

Once you've constructed the duper, simply activate the lever, wait a few seconds, and then activate it again. The observers and sticky pistons should kick in and begin to operate the machine automatically, and rails will be fired from the machine. Collect all the rails you need and keep doing so until you're satisfied. You can then flip the lever to hold the machine in place.

As previously noted, while this machine is confirmed to work as of Minecraft 1.20.4, it may very well be patched in future updates. With that in mind, you may need to work quickly to duplicate all your rails before Mojang makes it impossible to do so in future updates. There's no guarantee that the studio will fix this duplication bug, but it's a good idea to prepare for the worst.