By Shauna DeGeorge “The noise . . . the wind blowing through your hair, the people screaming, the rattling, the clickety-clacking, the quaking of the coaster; it’s the anticipation of climbing the hill and the slow clink-clink-clink of the safety dogs locking into place. It’s hovering above that first drop, looking down over that edge while the train slowly peaks . . . Just hanging there for those two or three seconds gives you the sensation that you know you’re going to fall any time. You feel the balance of weight begin to slowly shift to the opposite side of the train, leaning, leaning . . . and then you just drop.” —Tom Rebbie, president, Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters, Inc. Roller coasters in one form or another have towered as a facet of traditional fun and unbridled exhilaration for nearly five centuries. The journey from the days of pure and simple amusement to breaching the laws of physics to becoming modern-day beasts began slowly . . . and then picks up speed . . . Slick Moves Roller coasters began not as the thrill rides that we know today, but as makeshift ice slides on the steep, frost-bitten hills of sub-zero St. Petersburg, Russia in the late 1600s. Thrill seekers flocked to scale rickety staircases to the top of the ramps, plant themselves in the carved-out pits of king-sized ice cubes, and hurl wildly down steep frozen slopes at 50 miles per hour—a previously incomprehensible speed to most of the neo-ice enthusiasts. Nicknamed “Flying Mountains,” the massive frosty slides often stretched for several city blocks. Later, in 1817, after their popularity erupted in France, the slopes were converted to wooden tracks with grooves that locked in the sled wheels. Les Montagnes Russes à Belleville was the first ride in France to demonstrate the grooved track. The slides made appearances at fairs and traveling carnivals across Europe for many years to come, but on the whole, their popularity waned until the mid- to late 1800s when an explosive revolution took hold of pleasure seekers once again, this time on American soil. Runaway Trains The Mauch Chunk Switchback Railroad gave the nation its first peek at a coal mine converted into a thrill ride in 1827, when a gravity-based descent from the mines down a curving 18-mile track to Mauch Chunk port began double duty, transporting coal cars by day and throngs of adventurers by night. This proved to be a glimpse of what would eventually become a largely profitable roller coaster enterprise. Shortly after the Switchback gained momentum, La Marcus Thompson, a mechanically minded Ohio lad now known as “The Father of Gravity,” obtained a patent for an inclined-plane railway and opened the world’s first working “roller coasting structure” at Coney Island, N.Y., in 1884. The La Marcus Thompson Switchback Railway was an immediate sensation—at a nickel a ride it grossed $600 per day. According to American Coaster Enthusiasts (ACE) historian Richard Munch, the Switchback “was the first amusement device to offer thrills in a compact size.” Riders would board one of the Switchback’s long bench cars and coast down two straight side-by-side tracks, dismounting the car at the end of one track and re-boarding another on the parallel track to return. Munch says the Switchback’s popularity spawned a slew of duplicate Scenic Railways across the world. It also initiated coaster inventions that revolutionized the industry, including Charles Alcoke’s continuous-track ride in 1884 and Phillip Hinckle’s mechanical hoist in 1885. Classic Coaster Madness The traditional wooden coaster we know today surfaced in the early 1900s. New companies like Griffiths and Crane Scenic, Gravity Railway Company, and the Philadelphia Toboggan Company (PTC) exploded onto the scene and scrambled to take advantage of the wooden coaster frenzy. Entering the 1920s, manufacturers were dishing out a variety of woodies, such as racing coasters, Virginia reels, figure 8s, and twisters. A growing number of public thrill seekers clamored to ride them all. Munch says the Golden Era, from 1917 to 1930, marked the largest growth period in the history of roller coasters, as well as a time when new technology resulted in fewer derailments, steeper drops, and faster turns. The Cyclone came to life at Astroland Amusement Park in Coney Island, N.Y. and, after 75 years, continues to epitomize the roller coaster momentum of the Roaring ’20s. The Cyclone was designed by Vernon Keenan and built by the Harry C. Baker Company and the National Bridge Company for $100,000. The Giant Racer coaster, one of the largest coasters built at the time, was swapped out to make room for the wooden wonder, which opened in 1927. Now a National Historical Landmark, the Cyclone combined all the elements of a truly thrilling ride, from a death-defying 58-degree first drop to swift stomach-shifting curves, all while occupying fairly little ground space on a corner of Coney Island’s Surf Avenue. “This is the granddaddy of them all. It’s a small coaster, but it’s a fast coaster,” says 29-year Cyclone Ride Manager Gerald Menditto, who was born and raised in Coney Island. “Half the people love the front car because you get that feeling like you’re falling off a cliff; the other people like the last car because you get whipped around. And they all say the same thing—it’s still the best.” Another classic wooden Cyclone didn’t survive the years but is named in many history books as the wildest and most violent coaster ever built. It was located at the now defunct Crystal Beach park in Ontario, Canada. Mapped out by controversial coaster mogul Harry Traver, the coaster squeezed a 96-foot drop and extreme back-to-back turns into a mere 40-second ride, and was the only ride to have a nurse on duty specifically to tend to ailing patrons. Although it seemed as though coaster production would continue to boom, the Great Depression that gripped the country in the 1930s and wiped out a large number of competing parks and manufacturers, also squelched the amusement industry’s early splendor. The companies that survived resorted to unorthodox means of boosting their revenues in the light of economic turmoil. “As manufacturers started to dissolve, PTC was adapting its rides so that the people there would have support products for the rides,” says Tom Rebbie of PTC. “We’d either remanufacture a new car for them, or remanufacture parts for the coaster.” “The Great Depression, followed by World War II, essentially killed the parks and the nearly 1,500 coasters that they contained,” Munch says. “The mass production of the automobile followed, hurting the trolleys and the parks that were built at the end of their runs. By 1970, there was little left, which was the main reason the American Coaster Enthusiasts (ACE) group was formed. The next revival began at that time, with the introduction of cost-effective steel coasters and remarkable wood coasters that still exist today.” A New Dawn After more than two decades of fiscal drought in the industry, Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif. opened July 17, 1955, costing $17 million to create, a huge sum at the time. The park, partnered with engineering firm Arrow Development Company (now S&S-Arrow), released Matterhorn Bobsleds, a revolutionary ride that boasted the first tubular steel track and polyurethane-wheeled rolling stock. It took the nation 13 more years to completely rediscover amusement parks and coasters, but Matterhorn is credited with getting the ball rolling, and defining the modern-day coaster experience. Arrow Development and American coaster designer Ron Toomer joined forces in 1965 to create what some say is the world’s first all-steel coaster, Runaway Mine Train at Six Flags Over Texas. In 1975, Toomer cranked out another coaster sensation, the inverted helix-shaped Corkscrew for Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park, Calif. In his 30-year career, Toomer designed more than 80 steel coasters across the world and fueled Arrow’s rise as a major player in the amusement field. Another contender was Philadelphia Toboggan, which was backed by the creativity and skill of then-president John Allen. Allen’s brainchild was The Racer, a whitewashed wooden out-and-back coaster for Kings Island (now owned by Paramount) in Cincinnati, Ohio. It had ultra-modern, sleek elements that hinted at another revolution in coaster design but was still evocative of the classic wooden coasters of pre-Depression America. “You don’t need a degree in engineering to design roller coasters,” Allen once said, “You need a degree in psychology. A roller coaster is as theatrically contrived as a Broadway play.” “The Racer has been running for almost 30 years,” Rebbie says. “I guess the thing that really happens is that the coaster becomes bigger in your mind and more of a legend unto itself, remembering how big it actually was. Allen helped to revitalize the roller coaster industry with designs like this and made it so everyone would want to ride one.” Bigger, Better, Faster, Higher! During the 1970s and ’80s, several big-name companies squared off in a battle for the next best thing in coaster design. Arrow unleashed the flashy Loch Ness Monster at Busch Gardens Williamsburg in 1978, only to be met by the Anton Schwarzkopf Company and Intamin’s Shock Wave at Six Flags Over Texas, a ride that slammed riders through two consecutive vertical loops—a thrilling and cutting-edge design at the time. German-based Schwarzkopf released another record-setter later that year with what is said to be the first triple-looping coaster design in America, Six Flags Over Georgia’s Mind Bender. Steel coasters were all the rage—“They took off as soon as the ability to turn people upside down became possible in 1975,” Munch says—but the coasters of the ’80s had a taller order to fulfill. Approaching the ’80s, 100-foot coasters were giants of the day. But as ride heights began to gradually grow, so did the technology. In 1981, Arrow Dynamics released its prototype suspended coaster, The Bat, at Paramount’s Kings Island—a ride that featured cars shaped like bats that were suspended from the track and created wicked curves. The ride only operated through 1983, when it was closed due to various technical problems. The Flying Coaster was another unrealized achievement—a thrilling suspended Schwarzkopf design that was to be installed at Busch Gardens Williamsburg in 1984, but Schwarzkopf’s company closed in 1983 amidst financial instability. In 1984, Busch Gardens Williamsburg became a contender with The Big Bad Wolf, an Arrow creation that used over-the-shoulder restraints and is considered one of the best suspended coasters ever built. In 1984, stand-up coasters rose to the occasion at Kings Island. The King Cobra coaster was designed by a Japanese company, Togo International; and soon after the coaster’s release, Togo was in business at numerous parks across the country, constructing stand-up coasters. Not to be outdone, Bolliger & Mabillard, Inc. (B&M) stuck its neck out with a line of stand-up coasters for Six Flags Great America, Paramount’s Great America, and Paramount’s Carowinds in the early ’90s. The Swiss company continued its quest to conquer the latest trend in coasters with several designs to outdo their predecessors. Two of B&M’s breadwinners that are still in operation are Mantis at Cedar Point and Chang at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom. Roller Coaster Renaissance Over the past decade, roller coasters worldwide have been in perpetual development. The 1990s saw some of the world’s greatest technological amusement advances—most significantly, the rise of computer-aided design (CAD), a technological breakthrough that began in the ’70s, to map out the construction of coasters. CAD software was developed as a tool for ride architects and engineers to plot drawings and technical illustrations of coasters on computer screens that utilize 2D and 3D effects. Over the years, CAD technology has given designers a previously unfathomable understanding of the physics that work against the human body during a coaster ride by precisely calculating loops and turns based on allowable G forces, thus creating smoother and more physically appealing rides. Nowadays, new technologies to create faster cars and more powerful jolts are spreading like wildfire. Intamin and Cedar Point developed a linear induction motor (LIM) that uses aluminum fins on the sides of cars and electricity to ionize the metal and propel the train forward. In 1996, Premier Rides opened the first ride to use LIMs—Outer Limits: Flight of Fear at Paramount’s Kings Island. Intamin used the LIM as the motivating factor in Cedar Point’s 420-foot-high Top Thrill Dragster. Shuttle loop coasters took off in 1991, when the Schwarzkopf’s previously traveling extreme upside-down looping coaster, The Bullet, planted roots at Flamingoland in England. A 225-foot-high steel menace aptly named the Steel Phantom was placed at Kennywood by Arrow Dynamics and later reworked by Morgan Manufacturing to create smoother loops and curves and called Phantom’s Revenge. Busch Gardens Tampa let loose B&M’s characteristically smooth steel Kumba in 1993, which boasted the largest loop (114-foot vertical) in the world at the time. Kumba was significant because it set the standard for intensity and smoothness and made B&M a recognized force in the industry. Up, Up, and Away! With increased technology and limitless potential, in 1999 Six Flags Great Adventure showed off the first floorless coaster, Medusa, and Universal Studios’ Islands of Adventure got creative with extensive theming on its Incredible Hulk coaster. Edging toward the turn of the century, S&S introduced a new trend in coaster design by launching Thrust Air 2000, an intense launch coaster that accelerates to 80 mph in 1.8 seconds. It’s fueled by compressed air to shoot the train out and up 170 feet of track at a 90-degree angle. Renamed the Hypersonic XLC (Xtreme Launch Coaster), it currently penetrates the horizon at Paramount’s King’s Dominion. Vekoma stepped onto the scene in 1999 as well, with the flying coaster that tilts its train (and its riders) into a Superman-esque horizontal flying position. Stealth appeared at Paramount’s Great America to a wowed response, and in 2001 Six Flags purchased two Vekoma flying coasters for its own parks. B&M joined the trend, creating the awe-inspiring Air at Alton Towers in England and Superman-Ultimate Flight flyers for Six Flags Great Adventure, Great America, and Over Georgia. Now, many parks are clamoring not just for the biggest and fastest coasters, but also for the largest collections. So how high can roller coasters grow—is the sky limitless? “As far as heights, I think that will limit a ride on a coaster because you still have a lot to deal with,” Rebbie says. “You don’t want to hurt people—you want to have people get on them, take a fun ride, get off them, and say ‘Hey, I want to go back and do that again.’” In the midst of a world recession in 2003, many worry that the financial repercussions have already begun to affect the high development rate that the coaster industry built up in the late ’90s and early 2000s. “I believe we have seen the end of the current revival, ending with the latest economic and political unrest now gripping the country,” Munch says. “Parks like Cedar Point [and Six Flags] will continue to up the ante with these one-of-a-kind superlative rides, but there’s not much beyond that—it seems that almost everyone will be taking a break to catch their breath.” But Roy Vocking, vice president of Intamin AG, believes that the industry is simply taking a cautious turn toward a new kind of ride. “The market at the moment is just in one of its quiet cycles. Just looking at our workload, which is very good at the moment, the market seems to be looking at the more prototypical rides, which have a bigger marketing hit for our customers.” Rebbie stays optimistic, seeing the nostalgia and allure of roller coasters as an undying tradition. “There’s always going to be a roller coaster if you want to have a main attraction. If you ask anybody to close their eyes, think of an amusement park, and describe the first thing they see, chances are they’re going to tell you a roller coaster.”
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