Minecarts
Minecarts are a great mode of transportation, both in your mine and overland.
They are placed on and operate on minecart tracks. There is a relevant section
on tracks below. You can make three varieties of minecarts: a normal minecart,
a powered minecart, and a storage minecart.
A normal minecart is just, well, your normal run-of-the-mill Minecraft
minecart. It lets you ride around in it along your network of tracks. They
don't have much use outside of that.
Powered minecarts are minecarts that push other minecarts. They consist of a
normal minecart with a forge in it. You feed coal into the forge on it to get
it to move. This is done by holding coal in your hand in-game and
right-clicking on the powered minecart.
The last type of minecart is the storage minecart. As it's name implies, it
stores your items inside it. It's really just a mobile chest. You put items in
it in the same way you put items in a normal, stationary chest.