Java Edition:Floating Rails

This article is a work in progress. 

Please help in the creation of this article by expanding or improving it.
To do: Expand Update Suppression, Update Skipping, and Vanishing Blocks

In previous Minecraft versions, it has been possible to obtain floating rails through a few different methods.

Obtaining

Pistons

From Beta 1.7 - 13w01a (1.5 Snapshot) pushing with a 0/1-tick pulse or by simply pulling a rail or activator rail off a block it would leave it floating in mid air.^[1]

Powered rails can only float with this method until 11w49a (1.1 Snapshot).

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  Setup to create floating rails

End Portal

From 13w01a (1.5 Snapshot) - 1.21.4 placing a rail on a block that is inside of an end portal and then activating the portal will leave the rail floating on top of an end portal block.^[2]

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  Floating rails atop an end portal

Exit Portal

Placing rails on top of a block inside the exit portal area will leave the rails floating once reset.

This was first possible in 15w31a (1.9 Snapshot) and worked until 17w46a (1.13 Snapshot) where afterwards it would also destroy the rails.

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  Place rails on a block inside of the exit portal area and then reset it.

Update Suppression

Main page: Update Suppression

Warning: Game Crash 

This feature can crash your game. Perform at your own risk.

Another (yet much more complicated) way to obtain floating rails is with update suppression. Example here.

23w13a_or_b less_interaction_updates Vote Rule

Warning: April Fools' 

This feature requires April Fools' versions which may require file renaming or file deletion to load. See the Loading April Fools' Versions tutorial for more information.

Additionally, you can obtain floating rails with the less_interaction_updates vote rule. To do this, simply enable the vote rule before placing the rails on any block. Then, simply break the block, and due to the less_interaction_updates vote rule, the rails will stay in place, making them float.

Update Skipping

Main page: Update Skipping

Another way to obtain floating rails is through update skipping.

Vanishing Blocks

Main page: Vanishing Blocks

Finally, the last way to obtain floating rails is with vanishing blocks.

References