A roller coaster is a type of amusement ride that employs a form of elevated railroad track designed with tight turns, steep slopes, and sometimes inversions. People ride along the track in open cars, and the rides are often found in amusement parks and theme parks around the world. LaMarcus Adna Thompson obtained one of the first known patents for a roller coaster design in 1885, related to the Switchback Railway that opened a year earlier at Coney Island. The track in a coaster design does not necessarily have to be a complete circuit, as shuttle roller coasters demonstrate. Most roller coasters have multiple cars in which passengers sit and are restrained. Two or more cars hooked together are called a train. Some roller coasters, notably Wild Mouse roller coasters, run with single cars.
A steel roller coaster is a roller coaster that is defined by having a track made of steel. Steel coasters have earned immense popularity in the past 50 years throughout the world. Incorporating tubular steel track and polyurethane-coated wheels, the steel roller coasters can provide a taller, smoother, and faster ride with more inversions than a traditional wooden roller coaster.
Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters (PTC) is one of the oldest existing roller coaster manufacturing companies in the world. Based in Hatfield, Pennsylvania, it was established in 1904 by Henry Auchey and Chester Albright under the name Philadelphia Toboggan Company. The company manufactured carousels, wooden roller coasters, toboggans and later, roller coaster trains.
The Matterhorn Bobsleds are a pair of intertwined steel roller coasters at Disneyland in Anaheim, California. It is modeled after the Matterhorn, a mountain in the Alps on the border between Switzerland and Italy. It is the first known tubular steel continuous-track roller coaster. Located on the border between Tomorrowland and Fantasyland, it employs forced perspective to seem larger.
Euclid Beach Park was a popular amusement park located on the southern shore of Lake Erie in the Collinwood neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio.
Seabreeze Amusement Park, known locally as Seabreeze, is a historic amusement park in Irondequoit, a suburb of Rochester, New York. It is one of only thirteen trolley parks still operating in the United States.
Disaster Transport was an enclosed steel bobsled roller coaster built by Intamin at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio, United States. It was notable as being the only indoor roller coaster at Cedar Point and the only bobsled roller coaster in the midwest at its debut. The name of the ride stems from a rearrangement of the letters "Dispatch MasterTransport", which could still be seen in the ride's logo in its later years. Before the ride was enclosed, the supports and outer sides of the track were painted blue.
Alpine Bobsled is a steel bobsled roller coaster, made by Intamin. It has been at three parks, Six Flags Great Adventure, Six Flags Great America and Great Escape in Queensbury, New York, where it stands.
A bobsled roller coaster is a roller coaster that uses a track design that is essentially a "pipe" with the top half removed and has cars that are sent down this pipe in a freewheeling mode. The name derives from the great similarity to the track design used for the winter sport of bobsleigh.
John A. Miller was an American roller coaster designer and builder, inventor, and businessman. Having patented over 100 key roller coaster components, he is widely considered the "father of the modern high-speed roller coaster." During his lifetime, he participated in the design of approximately 140 coasters and was a key business partner and mentor to other well-known roller coaster designers, Harry C. Baker and John C. Allen.
Flying Turns is a wooden bobsled roller coaster at the Knoebels Amusement Resort in Elysburg, Pennsylvania. It is modeled after a similar ride designed by John Norman Bartlett and John Miller in the 1920s. The ride concept is similar to a modern steel bobsled roller coaster; however Flying Turns is made of wood, like the original rides. The layout of the ride is most similar to the original one that was at Riverview Park in Chicago, Illinois.
Runaway Mine Train is a steel roller coaster located in the Boomtown section of Six Flags Over Texas in Arlington, Texas. Built in 1966, Runaway Mine Train is the oldest roller coaster in the park.
Space Mountain is an indoor, space-themed roller coaster in Tomorrowland at Disneyland in Anaheim, California. Opened on May 27, 1977, it was the second roller coaster built at Disneyland, and was the second of the five versions of Space Mountain built by The Walt Disney Company. Its exterior façade is one of Disneyland's four "mountain" structures that serve as park landmarks.
Roller coaster elements are the individual parts of roller coaster design and operation, such as a track, hill, loop, or turn. Variations in normal track movement that add thrill or excitement to the ride are often called "thrill elements".
A mine train roller coaster is a steel roller coaster whose trains often depict a set of mine carts, with the forward-most car or portions of it sometimes resembling a small steam locomotive. Most mine train roller coasters are themed in the style of a mine, a Western scene, or simply a mountain range.
Avalanche is a bobsled roller coaster located at Kings Dominion in Doswell, Virginia. Manufactured by Mack Rides, Avalanche opened to the public in 1988. It is located in the Safari Village section of the park. There are seven cars per train and the various cars are themed after Olympic bobsleds that represent five countries. The countries include France, the United States, Germany, Switzerland and Canada. Each car has its country specific Winter Olympic decals.
Roller coaster amusement rides have origins back to ice slides constructed in 18th-century Russia. Early technology featured sleds or wheeled carts that were sent down hills of snow reinforced by wooden supports. The technology evolved in the 19th century to feature railroad track using wheeled cars that were securely locked to the track. Newer innovations emerged in the early 20th century with side friction and underfriction technologies to allow for greater speeds and sharper turns. By the mid-to-late 20th century, these elements intensified with the introduction of steel roller coaster designs and the ability for them to invert riders.
Avalanche is the first steel bobsled roller coaster constructed in the United Kingdom. It was built by Mack of Germany in 1988 at Blackpool Pleasure Beach, an amusement park in Blackpool, England.
Van Helsing's Factory is a steel enclosed roller coaster at the Movie Park Germany amusement park in Bottrop, Germany. The Gerstlauer dark ride opened in June 2011 as a replacement for the defunct Gremlin Invasion ride.
The Great Escape and Hurricane Harbor is an amusement and water park owned and operated by Six Flags Entertainment Corp. It is located approximately 60 miles (97 km) north of Albany, in Queensbury, New York. It is one of three Six Flags parks not to be officially branded with the "Six Flags" name, with La Ronde in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and Frontier City in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma being the two others.
