From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Wooden roller coaster
Wooden roller coaster
Thunderbird in the PowerPark amusement park
(overbanked turns). However, there are exceptions; Son
of Beast at Kings Island has a 214-foot-high (65 m) drop
and originally had a 90-foot-tall (27 m) loop until the end
of the 2006 season, although the loop had metal supports.
Other special cases are Hades at Mount Olympus Water
and Theme Park in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, featur-
The Texas Giant, a large wooden roller coaster at Six Flags Over ing a double-track tunnel and a 90-degree banked turn,
Texas in Arlington, TX The Voyage at Holiday World (an example of a wooden
roller coaster with a steel structure for supports) featur-
ing three separate 90-degree banked turns, Ravine Fly-
er II at Waldameer Park which has a 90-degree banked
turn, and T Express at Everland in South Korea with a
77-degree drop.
Decline and revival
Once a staple in virtually every amusement park in
America, wooden roller coasters appear to be on a slow
decline in popularity for a number of reasons. Steel roller
coasters, while having larger up-front costs, cost much
less in ongoing maintenance fees throughout the years
of operation. Wooden roller coasters, on the other hand,
require large amounts of devoted funds annually to keep
Colossos, one of the world’s largest wooden roller coasters at the ride in operating condition through regular re-track-
Heide Park, Germany. ing, track lubrication, and support maintenance.
Wooden coasters are also becoming less marketable
A wooden roller coaster is most often classified as a roller in today’s media-driven advertising world. Superlative
coaster with laminated steel running rails overlaid upon advertising in which the "biggest", "tallest", or "fastest"
a wooden track. Occasionally, the structure may be made ride is what brings in crowds often cannot apply to new
out of a steel lattice or truss, but the ride remains clas- wooden roller coasters, especially since a large majority
sified as a wooden roller coaster due to the track design. of record-holding rides are steel. Amusement parks are
Due to the limits of wood, wooden roller coasters in gen- always looking to add attractions which can be presented
eral do not have inversions (when the coaster goes up- in commercials and ads as incredibly tall, fast, or extreme
side down), steep drops, or extremely banked turns which eliminates many wooden roller coasters.
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Wooden roller coaster
However, the arrival of several new wooden coasters Wooden roller coasters slowly became larger over the
has bucked the downward trend. In 2006, a trio of giant course of time. By the end of the 1970s, Kings Island came
wooden coasters opened in the United States: The Ken- back to the scene with The Beast, which currently holds
tucky Rumbler at Beech Bend Park, The Voyage at Hol- the record for the longest wooden roller coaster in the
iday World, and El Toro at Six Flags Great Adventure. United States (The Beast was also the longest roller coast-
Another wooden coaster, Renegade at Valleyfair!, opened er in the world overall until 1991, when The Ultimate at
in 2007. It remains to be seen whether or not these new Lightwater Valley opened). Judge Roy Scream, a wooden
coasters mark the beginning of a wooden coaster revival, roller coaster with a 71’ drop, opened at Six Flags Over
but they do indicate that amusement parks continue to Texas in 1980, Grizzly, a wooden roller coaster patterned
show interest in wooden roller coasters. This may be after the Cincinnati Coney Island Wildcat, opened in 1982
owed to the fact that rides like El Toro at Six Flags Great at Kings Dominion, and Raging Wolf Bobs (inspired by
Adventure actually feel like steel coaster, due to prefab- The Riverview Park Bobs) opened at Geauga Lake Park in
ricated track. 1988.
The 1980s would continue with The Beast leading the
Golden Era way for many new wooden coaster designs. In the 1990s,
the popularity of large wooden twister roller coasters
It is agreed on many that the Golden Era of coaster design would come to the scene. With rides built by the Dinn
was the 1920s. This was the decade many of the world’s Corporation such as Mean Streak at Cedar Point and
most iconic coasters were built. Some of these include Texas Giant at Six Flags over Texas, many wooden roller
Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk’s Giant Dipper, the Coney coasters have become as big as possible.
Island Cyclone, and the Big Dipper at Geauga Lake, The The popularity of traditional out-and-back designs al-
Thriller at Euclid Beach Park.. This decade was the design so became popular throughout the 1990s, except they
peak for some of the world’s greatest coaster designers, could be made bigger and better with new technology.
including John A. Miller, Harry Traver, Herb Schmeck, Custom Coasters International (CCI), is responsible for
and the partnership of Prior and Church. creating a large number of out-and-back and twisting
Unfortunately, the great depression ensured destruc- coasters such as Shivering Timbers at Michigan’s Adven-
tion of many of these great classics, but a few still stand ture, GhostRider at Knott’s Berry Farm, The Raven at Hol-
as ACE classics and landmarks. iday World, and its sister coaster, The Legend.
The popularity may have come to a short closing, but
that didn’t stop certain amusement parks from building
scream machines again and again. Cedar Point built Blue
Modern Designs
Streak in 1964, a Philadelphia Toboggan Company manu- After CCI went bankrupt in 2002, the designers from the
factured coaster designed by John C. Allen. This dead age design team came together again to found The Gravity
of coaster design was brought to an end by The Racer at Group coaster manufacturing company. Intamin AG, an-
Kings Island. other well-known roller coaster company, came to the
scene with their Prefabricated Wooden Roller Coaster
Revival (see below), though they have built traditional wooden
coasters in the past like American Eagle at Six Flags Great
America and White Cyclone at Nagashima Spa Land. And
a new company named Great Coasters International has
come to the scene with their new breed of wooden coast-
er designs, including Wildcat at Hersheypark, the Light-
ning Racer (also Hersheypark), Gwazi at Busch Gardens
Tampa Bay, and Evel Knievel at Six Flags St. Louis.
Also in 2000, Kings Island premiered the world’s
tallest and fastest wooden roller coaster, the Son of Beast.
Until 2006, it was also the only wooden roller coaster
with an inversion. Following an accident with the struc-
ture, the loop was removed before the 2007 season.
Newer wooden roller coasters often break the rules
Dorney Park and Wildwater Kingdom’s Steel Force and Thun-
derhawk roller coasters in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Thunder- and restrictions traditionally associated with the type.
hawk is one of the longest-standing wood roller coasters in the Many new wooden roller coasters feature extremely
U.S. steep drops (see El Toro), 90-degree turns (see The Voy-
age), and normally feature trains other than Philadelphia
Toboggan Trains. Great Coasters International usually
run their coasters with their signature Millennium Flyer
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Wooden roller coaster
trains. The Gravity Group has developed Timberliners to
compete with Millenium Flyer trains. They are sched-
Wooden versus steel
uled to be added to The Voyage in the future and have Wooden roller coasters provide a very different ride and
been added to Gravity Group’s newest coasters, Wooden experience from steel roller coasters. While they are
Warrior at Quassy Amusement Park and Twister at Grona technically less capable than a steel coaster when it
Lund. comes to inversions and elements, wooden coasters in-
At Upper Clements Park in Nova Scotia, a wooden stead rely on an often rougher and more "wild" ride as
roller coaster was built in 1980 that today still wins well as a more psychological approach to inducing fear.
awards for the terrain that was used in dictating its de- Their shaky structures and track, which usually move
sign and the terrain that it still covers. Built using a nat- anywhere from a few inches to a few feet with a passing
ural setting beside the sea, the Tree-Topper curves its train, give a sense of unreliability and the "threat" of col-
way over a river, through a marsh, up onto hills and into lapse or disregard for safety. Of course, this assumption
a forest. The coaster is one of the premier attractions at is purely mental and wooden roller coaster supports and
this park. track systems are designed to sway with the force. If the
track and structure are too rigid, they will break under
the strain of the passing train. The swaying of the track
Prefabricated track reduces the force applied per second (see impulse), like a
One of the most significant recent developments in shock absorber.
wooden coaster design is Intamin AG’s use of prefabricat- Like steel roller coasters, wooden roller coasters usu-
ed track. This design essentially applies the principles of ally use the same three-wheel design, pioneered by John
steel coaster manufacturing to wood. Miller. Each set of wheels includes a running wheel (on
Traditional wooden coaster track is built on-site. It is top of the track), a side friction wheel (to reduce side
nailed layer-by-layer to the support structure, then it is to side movement known as "hunting") and an upstop
smoothed to the proper shape and steel running plates wheel (beneath the track to prevent cars from flying off
are mounted on top. Prefabricated track, on the other the track). Some wooden coasters, such as Leap-The-Dips,
hand, is manufactured in a factory. It is made of many do not have upstop wheels, and are therefore known as
thin layers of wood that are glued together and then side friction roller coasters. As a result, the turns and
laser cut to the exact shape needed. The track is made drops are more gentle than on modern wooden roller
in 25-foot (7.6 m) sections which have special joints on coasters. Scenic Railway roller coasters also lack upstop
the ends that allow them to snap together like K’Nex wheels, but rely on a brakeman to control the speed. A
pieces. This process allows for far higher precision than handful of wooden coasters use flanged wheels, similar to
could ever be achieved by hand. In addition, the trains a rail car, eliminating the need for side friction wheels.
for a prefabricated wooden coaster have wheels with The debate rages as to which type of coaster is better:
polyurethane tires, just like a steel coaster. In contrast, wood or steel. This is unlikely to ever be settled, however,
traditional wooden coaster trains have bare metal because each category distinguishes itself from the other
wheels. in a number of ways, in addition to also providing a sub-
This design results in a ride that is nearly as smooth stantially different and unique ride.
as the smoothest of steel coasters, and much smoother
than any traditional wooden coaster. However, some
coaster enthusiasts may find this smoothness to detract
Examples of wooden roller
from the experience, as it would not have the same char- coasters
acter as a traditional wooden coaster. Despite this, all
four existing prefabricated wooden coasters are consis-
tently rated among the best wooden coasters in the
world.
Prefabricated wooden coasters also benefit from
faster construction and reduced maintenance compared
to a traditional wooden coaster. The track is simply bolt-
ed to the structure, which takes an insignificant amount
of time compared to actually building the track. The
American Eagle’s lift hill and helix
track also stays smooth much longer than traditional
track, which becomes rough rather quickly and eventual-
• American Eagle at Six Flags Great America is the
ly must be replaced.
longest, tallest, and fastest racing coaster in the
world.
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Wooden roller coaster
• Grand National at Pleasure Beach Blackpool, United
Kingdom - One of three Möbius loop roller coasters
• Hullámvasút[2] at Vidámpark, Budapest, Hungary -
Wooden roller coaster built in 1922 after the plans of
Ervin Dragon, is 17 m (55.8 ft) in height and travels
980 m (3,215 ft) in five minutes. It is one of the few
remaining side friction roller coasters in the world,
and is an ACE Coaster Classic,[3] operated since 1926,
and still running.
• Leap-The-Dips at Lakemont Park, Altoona,
Pennsylvania, United States - the world’s oldest
operating roller coaster (opened 1902).
Vuoristorata, built in 1951, dominates the Linnanmäki amuse- • Thunderbolt at Kennywood Park, Pittsburgh,
ment park in Helsinki, Finland
Pennsylvania declared "King of the Coasters" by the
New York Times. Kennywood is home to two other
• Le Monstre, at La Ronde, Montreal, Canada is the woodies: The Racer (a Moebius Loop) and the
tallest double track wooden roller coaster in the Jackrabbit, featuring a unique double-dip.
world.[1] • The Scenic Railway Opened 7/3/1920 The oldest
• Balder at Liseberg Amusement Park, Gothenburg, wooden coaster in the Britain and the 3rd oldest in
Sweden. This was the second "prefabricated" the world is located at Dreamland Margate, Kent. In
wooden coaster to be built. 2002 the ride became a Grade II listed building - the
• Colossus at Six Flags Magic Mountain, California, first UK amusement park attraction to achieve this
United States. Was the world’s tallest, fastest, and status. It closed in 2005 and 25% of it was destroyed
longest wooden roller coaster upon debut in 1978. by fire on 7 April 2008, however, plans are afoot with
• The Beast at Kings Island, Ohio, United States. The English Heritage to restore it.
Beast holds the world record for being the longest • Rebel Yell at Kings Dominion, Doswell, Virginia is a
wooden roller coaster in the world. racing roller coaster, featuring two individual tracks
• Bjergrutschebanen (the Mountain Roller Coaster) at that parallel each other. From 1993-2007 the Rebel
Tivoli Gardens, Copenhagen, Denmark. Built 1914 Yell had one side of the tracks traveling forwards
and still run with brake men. and one side traveling backwards. Named for the
• Coaster at Playland in Vancouver, British Columbia, Civil War battle cry of the same name.
Canada. This signature attraction was built in 1958 • Scenic Railway at Luna Park, Melbourne Australia
and has speeds up to 75 km/h (47 mph). Featured in Built in 1912, the Scenic Railway is the oldest
the movie Riding the Bullet. continually-operating roller coaster in the world,
• Colossos at Heide Park, Soltau, Germany. Colossos, and one of only 8 in existence requiring a brakeman
built 2001, is one of the largest wooden coasters in to operate brakes whilst the train. For these reasons,
the world. it is regarded as an American Coaster Enthusiasts
• The Comet at The Great Escape & Splashwater Coaster Classic.
Kingdom, Queensbury, New York. Originally built in • Roller Coaster at Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach,
1927 for the amusement park in Crystal Beach, built there in 1932 is another roller coaster requiring
Ontario, it was purchased and relocated to a brakeman to ride the train; and the only
Queensbury in 1993 after Crystal Beach closed down. operational scenic railway in he UK. It is also an ACE
It is commonly considered one of the best wooden Coaster Classic.
roller coasters in the world. • Boulder Dash Wooden roller coaster voted the
• The Cyclone at Coney Island, New York, United world’s #1 wooden roller coaster by the National
States - opened in 1927; one of America’s most Amusement Park Historical Association at Lake
famous roller coasters containing one of the steepest Compounce amusement park in Bristol, Connecticut.
drops found on a wooden roller coaster (60 degrees). • Shivering Timbers Fourth longest wooden roller
• El Toro at Six Flags Great Adventure, Jackson, New coaster in the world (behind The Beast, Son of Beast,
Jersey, United States - opened in 2006 with one of the and The Voyage) and consistently well-rated in the
steepest drops of any wooden roller coaster (76 Golden Ticket awards. Located at Michigan’s
degrees). Adventure near Muskegon, Michigan.
• GhostRider at Knott’s Berry Farm, Buena Park, • The Voyage at Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari,
California, United States - It is the longest wooden Santa Claus, Indiana, United States - features three
coaster on the West Coast. 90-degree banked turns and is the third longest
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Wooden roller coaster
wooden roller coaster in the world behind Son of • T Express at Everland Resort is a current record
Beast and The Beast. holder for the steepest wooden roller coaster (77
• Zippin Pippin the second oldest rollercoaster in degrees).
America formerly at Libertyland, Memphis, • Roller Coaster at Lagoon in Farmington, Utah. Built
Tennessee, United States - was Elvis Presley’s 1928.
favorite roller coaster. Elvis even rode the Zippin • ROAR are two wooden roller coasters operated by Six
Pippin eight days before he died. The Zippin Pippin Flags. The original coaster was built at Six Flags
was moved and rebuilt at the Bay Beach Amusement America in Mitchellville, Maryland in 1998, while the
Park in Green Bay, Wisconsin. other was built in 1999 at Six Flags Discovery
• Son of Beast at Kings Island, the world’s tallest and Kingdom in Vallejo, California.
fastest wooden roller coaster, and was once the only
wooden coaster to have an inversion (loop) before
being removed in 2007 after an accident in July 2006.
See also
• Grizzly at Kings Dominion, Doswell, Virginia The • Thrill ride
grounds of the ride are densely forested, with the
intended thrills heightened from the illusion of
inadequate clearance between the track and trees.
References
Layout based on Cincinnati Coney Island Wildcat. [1] Le Monstre, La Ronde, Montreal
• Giant Dipper Mission Beach Roller Coaster and The [2] Hullámvasút
Giant Dipper are two original oceanfront roller [3] ACE Coaster Classic Awards
coasters still operating on the west coast. They were
built in 1925 and 1924, respectively. External links
• The Phoenix at Knoebels’ Amusement Resort was the
first large-scale wooden roller coaster to be • Roller Coaster Data Base Guide to all coasters
relocated when it was moved from San Antonio, TX everywhere.
to its current location in Elysburg, Pennsylvania. • History of Roller Coasters at Ultimate
• Viper at Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, Illinois, Rollercoaster.com, series on roller coaster history
United States - only wooden roller coaster originally includes photos and historical information about
built by Six Flags. Mirror image of the Coney Island wooden roller coasters.
Cyclone. • Pictures of the Scenic Railway at Tivoli Gardens in
Copenhagen, showing the brakeman and the inner
workings of the ride.
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Categories:
• Wooden roller coasters
• Types of roller coasters
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