How to build Subway Station in Minecraft

A New York subway stop sliced open like a cake. On the street a taxi and a city bus roll past hydrants, news boxes and the classic stair entrance with green globe lamps and railings. The stairs drop to a tiled mezzanine with turnstiles, a token booth and MetroCard machines, and a second flight lands on an island platform lined with green steel columns, wooden benches and fluorescent lights. A silver train waits on the uptown track in front of a white-tile wall with a mosaic CANAL ST name tablet. Half the street is lifted off so you can look straight down onto the platform, and the cut faces show the pavement, dirt, gravel, pipes and bedrock the station was dug out of.

Open the interactive 3D plan above to build it one layer at a time: every layer has a numbered top-down plan, a block list and full-screen step-by-step instructions you can tick off as you go. You can also download it for Litematica, WorldEdit or Minecraft Bedrock, or view it in your room in AR.

Materials list

BlockAmountStacks
Stone1,66225 stacks + 62
Quartz Bricks87113 stacks + 39
Gray Concrete4446 stacks + 60
Smooth Stone4386 stacks + 54
Block of Iron3505 stacks + 30
Green Concrete2884 stacks + 32
Black Concrete2654 stacks + 9
Light Gray Concrete2403 stacks + 48
White Concrete2073 stacks + 15
Gravel1702 stacks + 42
Andesite1492 stacks + 21
Yellow Concrete1352 stacks + 7
Polished Andesite1121 stack + 48
Dirt1021 stack + 38
Green Terracotta1011 stack + 37
Cobblestone791 stack + 15
Iron Bars671 stack + 3
Blue Terracotta661 stack + 2
Black Stained Glass651 stack + 1
Sea Lantern51
Spruce Planks48
Spruce Slab47
Stone Brick Stairs40
Red Terracotta34
Blue Concrete32
Blue Carpet27
White Stained Glass24
Spruce Stairs23
Oak Leaves19
Red Concrete19
Yellow Terracotta16
Glass12
Lime Concrete10
Bricks8
Cyan Terracotta8
Gray Stained Glass8
Yellow Carpet8
End Rod6
Lime Stained Glass6
Smooth Stone Slab6
Light Blue Concrete4
Redstone Lamp (lit)4
Oak Log3
Orange Terracotta2
Orange Concrete1

Building tips

  1. In survival you would dig this out of real ground. Mark out the station box (49 long, 16 deep, 13 tall), dig it, then line it with tile.
  2. Quartz bricks look just like white subway tile. Run a coloured mosaic band along the wall and frame the name tablet with blue terracotta.
  3. Paint the platform edge with yellow concrete, the safety strip every NYC platform has, and leave the space under the edge open like the real overhang.
  4. One slab is both the station ceiling and the mezzanine floor. The stairwell down to the platform is just a hole in it with railings round it.
  5. Put lime stained glass on top of a short green post, with an end rod as the bulb, for the green globe lamps that mark every subway entrance.
  6. If you are building it as a display, give the cut faces layers: pavement, dirt, gravel, then stone, with the ends of a water main and a brick sewer showing.

Step-by-step: all 26 layers

  1. Layer 1 Stone ×867
  2. Layer 2 Block of Iron ×188, Gray Concrete ×106, Gravel ×95, Stone ×63, Green Terracotta ×49, Spruce Planks ×48, Quartz Bricks ×30, Andesite ×12, Cobblestone ×6
  3. Layer 3 Gray Concrete ×187, Stone ×63, Green Terracotta ×49, Spruce Slab ×47, Black Concrete ×30, Quartz Bricks ×18, Andesite ×12, Cobblestone ×8
  4. Layer 4 Light Gray Concrete ×141, Smooth Stone ×141, Yellow Concrete ×94, Block of Iron ×70, Quartz Bricks ×67, Stone ×65, Blue Carpet ×27, Andesite ×12, Black Concrete ×12, Cobblestone ×6, Sea Lantern ×2
  5. Layer 5 Quartz Bricks ×111, Stone ×64, Black Stained Glass ×43, Black Concrete ×40, Spruce Stairs ×23, Block of Iron ×17, Andesite ×12, White Stained Glass ×12, Cobblestone ×7, Stone Brick Stairs ×4, Green Terracotta ×2
  6. Layer 6 Quartz Bricks ×105, Stone ×64, Block of Iron ×58, Black Concrete ×16, Green Concrete ×14, Andesite ×12, White Stained Glass ×12, Cobblestone ×6, White Concrete ×6, Red Concrete ×4, Stone Brick Stairs ×4, Iron Bars ×2, Yellow Concrete ×2, Lime Concrete ×1
  7. Layer 7 Light Gray Concrete ×99, Quartz Bricks ×99, Stone ×63, Black Concrete ×16, Green Concrete ×14, Andesite ×12, Cobblestone ×8, White Concrete ×6, Stone Brick Stairs ×4, Iron Bars ×2, Red Concrete ×2, Yellow Concrete ×2
  8. Layer 8 Stone ×64, Quartz Bricks ×44, Black Concrete ×30, Blue Terracotta ×19, Green Concrete ×14, Andesite ×12, Red Terracotta ×8, Yellow Terracotta ×8, Cobblestone ×7, Blue Concrete ×4, Stone Brick Stairs ×4, Iron Bars ×2, Lime Concrete ×2, Red Concrete ×2, White Concrete ×2
  9. Layer 9 Stone ×64, Quartz Bricks ×46, White Concrete ×29, Black Concrete ×14, Green Concrete ×14, Andesite ×12, Gray Concrete ×12, Cobblestone ×6, Red Terracotta ×6, Stone Brick Stairs ×4, Blue Terracotta ×2, Iron Bars ×2, Lime Concrete ×2, Red Concrete ×2, Block of Iron ×1
  10. Layer 10 Stone ×65, Quartz Bricks ×52, White Concrete ×28, Black Concrete ×17, Green Concrete ×14, Andesite ×12, Cobblestone ×6, Red Terracotta ×4, Redstone Lamp (lit) ×4, Stone Brick Stairs ×4, Blue Terracotta ×2, Iron Bars ×2, Lime Concrete ×2, Red Concrete ×2
  11. Layer 11 Stone ×66, Quartz Bricks ×46, Black Concrete ×32, White Concrete ×22, Green Concrete ×14, Andesite ×12, Sea Lantern ×8, Red Terracotta ×6, Cobblestone ×4, Stone Brick Stairs ×4, Blue Terracotta ×2, Iron Bars ×2, Block of Iron ×1
  12. Layer 12 Stone ×64, Quartz Bricks ×46, White Concrete ×24, Black Concrete ×14, Green Concrete ×14, Andesite ×12, Cobblestone ×7, Stone Brick Stairs ×4, Blue Terracotta ×2, Iron Bars ×2, Red Concrete ×1, Yellow Concrete ×1
  13. Layer 13 Stone ×65, Blue Terracotta ×39, Sea Lantern ×34, Quartz Bricks ×30, Green Concrete ×14, Andesite ×12, Cyan Terracotta ×8, Cobblestone ×6, White Concrete ×3, Black Concrete ×2, Iron Bars ×2, Red Terracotta ×2, Red Concrete ×1, Yellow Concrete ×1
  14. Layer 14 Smooth Stone ×216, Green Concrete ×164, Polished Andesite ×78, Stone ×25, Andesite ×5, Black Concrete ×2, Blue Concrete ×2, Cobblestone ×2, Lime Concrete ×1, Red Concrete ×1, White Concrete ×1
  15. Layer 15 Quartz Bricks ×51, Gravel ×34, Iron Bars ×27, Dirt ×11, Block of Iron ×10, Black Concrete ×4, Bricks ×3, White Concrete ×3, Stone Brick Stairs ×2, Lime Concrete ×1, Red Concrete ×1
  16. Layer 16 Quartz Bricks ×49, Gravel ×32, Dirt ×11, Glass ×6, Iron Bars ×4, Black Concrete ×3, White Concrete ×3, Bricks ×2, Light Blue Concrete ×2, Stone Brick Stairs ×2, Blue Concrete ×1, Lime Concrete ×1, Red Concrete ×1, Yellow Concrete ×1
  17. Layer 17 Quartz Bricks ×47, Dirt ×38, Black Concrete ×7, Glass ×6, Bricks ×3, Gravel ×2, Light Blue Concrete ×2, Orange Terracotta ×2, Stone Brick Stairs ×2, Yellow Concrete ×1
  18. Layer 18 Dirt ×41, Quartz Bricks ×30, Yellow Terracotta ×8, Gravel ×7, Red Terracotta ×7, Block of Iron ×5, Sea Lantern ×5, Stone Brick Stairs ×2, Yellow Concrete ×1
  19. Layer 19 Gray Concrete ×127, Smooth Stone ×81, Polished Andesite ×34, White Concrete ×15, Black Concrete ×12, Yellow Concrete ×11, Dirt ×1
  20. Layer 20 White Concrete ×27, Iron Bars ×20, Black Concrete ×14, Yellow Concrete ×13, Green Concrete ×6, Gray Concrete ×2, Red Concrete ×2, Blue Concrete ×1, Green Terracotta ×1, Oak Log ×1
  21. Layer 21 Blue Concrete ×24, Gray Stained Glass ×8, Yellow Concrete ×8, Green Concrete ×6, Black Stained Glass ×4, Gray Concrete ×2, Oak Log ×1, Red Terracotta ×1
  22. Layer 22 Black Stained Glass ×18, Yellow Carpet ×8, End Rod ×6, White Concrete ×6, Gray Concrete ×2, Oak Log ×1
  23. Layer 23 White Concrete ×32, Oak Leaves ×9, Lime Stained Glass ×6, Gray Concrete ×2, Orange Concrete ×1
  24. Layer 24 Oak Leaves ×9, Gray Concrete ×2
  25. Layer 25 Gray Concrete ×2, Sea Lantern ×2, Oak Leaves ×1
  26. Layer 26 Smooth Stone Slab ×6

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