Minecart with Chest

Minecarts with Chests (also called Chest Minecarts or Storage Minecarts) were added to the game in the Seecret Friday Update 7 on July 30 2010. Their main purpose is to function like a minecart while being able to store and transport goods. They work just like normal minecarts, except that they cannot be ridden in.

To use a Minecart with Chest, the player must place it on any type of Rail block by using the "Use" command (normally right click). This will bring up an interface the same as a Chest's. Breaking a Storage Minecart will cause everything inside to be dumped out as well as a Minecart and Chest block. Since a Storage Minecart's recipe is only 1x2 spaces, it can be recrafted without a Crafting Table.

Crafting
A Minecart with Chest is crafted from a Chest and a Minecart, as shown below:

Physics
The physical properties of storage minecarts are equal to empty minecarts regardless of the content stored inside them. In other words, they gain the same momentum from boosters and slopes and thus don't travel as far as occupied minecarts after being boosted. This may be a problem as most tracks designed for occupied carts may not have enough boosters for empty carts and storage carts. However, they can be pushed by powered minecarts faster than occupied carts.

Another physical property of storage minecarts is their high ability to be stacked. Whereas only 3 chests can fit in an area 3 blocks tall, up to 4 storage minecarts can fit in the same area. Because of this, many players choose to use minecart storage because of its compactness. On the other hand, stacked minecarts are very delicate and can fall apart or make noise if touched. A solution to this is to place guardrails in front of the minecarts.



Here, a series of mob heads are used as guardrails to prevent the player from touching the storage minecarts. Using a method such as this, one can stack up to 24 storage minecarts in the same 6x3 area 8 normal, accessible chests could be placed.

History
The Storage Minecart (original name) was added in the 1.0.14 Seecret Friday Update 7. Their chest model was changed in Beta 1.8 from to the current one in conjunction with the updated Chest design.

When Minecarts were first implemented, Minecarts with Chests and Minecarts with Furnaces didn't exist. A normal Minecart's purpose was to store things much like the current Storage Minecart.

A few updates after Minecarts were added and before Minecarts with Chests and Minecarts with Furnaces were implemented, Minecarts had a strange appearance. They looked exactly like Storage Minecarts that could not store anything, but could still be ridden. When Storage and Powered Minecarts were added, normal Minecarts were given their current appearance.

As of snapshot 12w06a, storage minecarts became renewable.

As of 13w02a, storage minecarts generate in abandoned mineshafts.

Trivia

 * Storage minecarts cannot be destroyed by an Ender Dragon, making storing items in the End with the Ender Dragon alive feasible.
 * A piston can push a block into a storage minecart that is not on a rail if there is a block behind the minecart, such that the block and the minecart occupy the same space. Right clicking the block will open the minecart's chest, effectively allowing chests to be hidden inside walls.

Bugs

 * In version 1.0.0, enchanted items dropped from broken Minecarts with Chest would no longer be enchanted. However, this was fixed in the 1.2.4 release
 * When holding a bow and arrows are in your inventory, right-clicking on the storage minecart will charge the bow while the storage minecart is open and releases when the chest is closed, thus breaking the storage minecart. Similar behavior also occurs on items with hold-the-button action like food or blocking with a sword.
 * A rare bug can happen which can make the storage minecart and all items inside duplicate.
 * In Version 1.1, singleplayer and multiplayer, there is a bug when trying to open a Minecart with Chest that is resting on a sloping, powered rail. Right-clicking on the Minecart in this position will open the Minecart instead of placing whatever the player holds in their hand except for when they are holding a water bucket or lava bucket. In the latter cases the lava or water will be placed. The lava will instantly destroy the tracks, minecart, and its contents. Water will leave the minecart unharmed but destroy the tracks. This can be problematic, as sloping power rails are a widely used stopper for minecarts in complex redstone powered storing systems. This bug does not occur when the minecart is resting on flat, non-sloping track.
 * In SMP on a server with even slight lag, Minecarts with Chests may be impossible to interact with. You will have to wait a certain amount of time before being able to use it.