A wooden roller coaster is most often classified as a roller coaster with running rails made of flattened steel strips mounted on laminated wooden track. Occasionally, the support structure may be made out of a steel lattice or truss, but the ride remains classified as a wooden roller coaster due to the track design. The type of wood typically used in the construction of wooden coasters is Southern Yellow Pine, usually grown in the US and the rest of North America.
The Beast is a wooden roller coaster located at Kings Island amusement park in Mason, Ohio. Designed and manufactured in-house for $3.2 million, the ride opened in 1979 as the tallest, fastest, and longest wooden roller coaster in the world. Decades later, it is still the longest, spanning 7,359 feet (2,243 m) across 35 acres (14 ha) of hilly terrain. Two lift hills contribute to the ride's duration of more than four minutes, which also ranks as one of the longest among roller coasters.
The Big One, formerly known as the Pepsi Max Big One, is a steel roller coaster located at Blackpool Pleasure Beach in Blackpool, Lancashire, in the United Kingdom. Designed by Ron Toomer and manufactured by Arrow Dynamics, the ride opened to the public on 28 May 1994 as the tallest and steepest roller coaster in the world. It held the record until July 1996, when Fujiyama opened at Fuji-Q Highland in Japan. The ride is currently the tallest roller coaster in the United Kingdom.
Timber Wolf is a wooden roller coaster located at Worlds of Fun in Kansas City, Missouri. Timber Wolf was designed by Curtis D. Summers and was built by the Dinn Corporation. It opened in April 1989.
El Toro is a wooden roller coaster located at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson Township, New Jersey. Designed by Intamin of Switzerland, the wooden coaster opened to the public on June 11, 2006. Intamin contracted Rocky Mountain Construction (RMC) to build the ride, and the coaster's track was prefabricated, allowing for quicker installation and lower construction costs. When it opened, it had the steepest drop of any wooden roller coaster in the world at 76 degrees, until the record was broken by T Express in 2008 by one degree. Overall, its structure height of 181 feet (55 m) is ranked fourth, its drop height of 176 feet (54 m) is ranked second, and its top speed of 70 miles per hour (110 km/h) is ranked fourth among all wooden roller coasters in the world. It was also the first wooden roller coaster to use a cable lift as opposed to the traditional chain lift.
Psyclone was a wooden roller coaster located at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Santa Clarita, California. Designed by Curtis D. Summers and constructed by the Dinn Corporation, the roller coaster opened to the public on March 23, 1991. Psyclone's design was modeled after the well-known Coney Island Cyclone roller coaster, a historical landmark located at Coney Island in New York City. It featured eleven hills, five high-speed banked turns, and a 183-foot-long (56 m) dark tunnel. Bolliger & Mabillard, a company that builds steel roller coasters, manufactured the trains for Psyclone.
Steel Vengeance, formerly known as Mean Streak, is a steel roller coaster at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio. The roller coaster was rebuilt by Rocky Mountain Construction (RMC) and opened to the public on May 5, 2018. It features RMC's patented I-Box Track technology utilizing a significant portion of Mean Streak's former support structure. Upon completion, Steel Vengeance set 10 world records.
American Eagle is a wooden racing roller coaster located at Six Flags Great America theme park in Gurnee, Illinois. It was the first wooden roller coaster designed by Intamin of Switzerland and was built in 1981 by the contracting firm Figley-Wright. While the records have since been broken, American Eagle had the longest drop and fastest speed among wooden roller coasters when it debuted and is still recognized as a top racing coaster in the United States.
Predator is a wooden roller coaster located at Six Flags Darien Lake. It was designed by Curtis D. Summers and built by Dinn Corporation and opened on May 25, 1990.
Thunder Run is a wooden roller coaster at the Kentucky Kingdom amusement park in Louisville, Kentucky. The ride originally operated from August 1990 through to October 2009, when then-operators Six Flags abandoned the park. After remaining closed since 2009, Thunder Run reopened in May 2014 when Kentucky Kingdom reopened under new operators.
New Texas Giant, formerly known as Texas Giant, is a steel roller coaster located at Six Flags Over Texas in Arlington, Texas. The original Texas Giant, which opened in 1990, was manufactured by Dinn Corporation and designed by Curtis D. Summers. For more than a decade after its opening, the Texas Giant remained popular, ranking first among wooden roller coasters twice in the annual Golden Ticket Awards from Amusement Today. The ride's popularity suffered later on, however, as it gained a reputation for increasing roughness.
Hercules was a wooden roller coaster located at Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Manufactured by the Dinn Corporation and designed by Curtis D. Summers, the roller coaster opened to the public on May 6, 1989. It set a world record for having the longest drop on a wooden coaster at 151 feet (46 m), surpassing the previous record of 147 feet (45 m) set by American Eagle in 1981. Hercules was the third wooden coaster to be constructed at the park. A scenic railway operated at Dorney from 1905 to 1912. The park's existing wooden coaster, known simply as "Coaster" opened in 1924 and was remodeled in 1930. With the opening of Hercules, the existing coaster was given a formal name — Thunderhawk.
Raging Wolf Bobs was a wooden roller coaster located at Geauga Lake amusement park in Ohio. Designed by Curtis D. Summers to resemble Bobs, a popular roller coaster at the defunct Riverview Park in Chicago, Raging Wolf Bobs was constructed by the Dinn Corporation and opened to the public in 1988. It operated until June 16, 2007, following an accident involving the derailing of a train that unexpectedly rolled backward on one of the track's hills. Later that season, park owners Cedar Fair announced the permanent closure of Geauga Lake, sealing the fate of Raging Wolf Bobs.
The Legend is a wooden roller coaster at Holiday World & Splashin' Safari in Santa Claus, Indiana, United States. It was designed and built beginning in 1999 by Custom Coasters International, with the help of designers Dennis McNulty and Larry Bill; it opened on May 6, 2000. The Legend is themed after Washington Irving's short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and mimics the frightful ride Ichabod Crane took as he was chased through the woods by the Headless Horseman. The Legend has been consistently ranked among the world's top twenty-five wooden roller coasters at the Golden Ticket Awards, which are presented annually by Amusement Today magazine.
Hoosier Hurricane is a wooden roller coaster at Indiana Beach in Monticello, Indiana. The ride was designed by Dennis McNulty and Larry Bill of Custom Coasters International. It opened on May 27, 1994, as the park's largest wooden roller coaster and the first wooden roller coaster built in Indiana in fifty years. The ride was Custom Coasters International's third roller coaster designed and the first modern wooden coaster built with a steel support structure, which would eventually become a trend on many wooden coasters designed by them.
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".
Dinn Corporation was a roller coaster designing and manufacturing company established in West Chester, Ohio in 1983 by Charles Dinn. The company is noted for moving and rebuilding several existing wooden coasters and building ten new wooden roller coasters in the United States.
Curtis D. Summers was an engineer and American roller coaster designer credited for designing or providing structural engineering on 25 wooden roller coasters around the world. He earned a degree in Architectural Engineering from Kansas State University and was a registered engineer in 40 states.
New Mexico Rattler, commonly referred to as The Rattler, is an outdoor wooden roller coaster located at Cliff's Amusement Park in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Lightning Rod is a wooden roller coaster located at Dollywood theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Marketed as the world's first launched wooden roller coaster, the ride is themed to hot rod cars from the 1950s and was manufactured by Rocky Mountain Construction. It was originally planned to debut on opening day in 2016, but a problem with the ride's unique launch system delayed the opening to June 13, 2016. A mechanical issue occurred the following week, resulting in an extended closure that caused Lightning Rod to miss most of its debut season.
