A wooden roller coaster is most often classified as a roller coaster by running rails made of flattened steel strips mounted on laminated wooden trajectories. Sometimes, support structures can be made of steel grilles or frames, but the journey remains classified as a wooden roller coaster due to the design of the track. Because of wooden boundaries, wooden roller coasters, in general, have no inversion (when the coaster becomes inverted), steep drops, or turns are very banked (overbanked turns). However, there are exceptions; The Son of Beast that died on Kings Island was 214 feet (65 m) tall and originally had a 90 foot (27 m) loop until the end of the 2006 season, although the loop had steel support. Another special case is the Hades 360 at Mount Olympus Water and Theme Park in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. This coaster has a double-track tunnel, bottle opener, and turns 90 degrees turns. There is also The Voyage at Holiday World (an example of wooden roller coaster with steel structure to shore up) featuring three turns turning 90 degrees apart. Ravine Flyer II at Waldameer Park has 90 degree turns, T Express at Everland in South Korea with 77 degrees decrease, and Outlaw Run in Silver Dollar City which has 3 inversions and 120 degree overbanked turn.
Video Wooden roller coaster
Reject and revival
After becoming a staple in almost every amusement park in America, wooden roller coasters began to decline in popularity slowly for a number of reasons. Roller coaster steels, while having a larger up front cost, cost much lower in the cost of ongoing maintenance throughout the year of operation. Wooden roller coasters, on the other hand, require large amounts of special funds every year to keep travel in operating conditions through regular re-tracking, track lubrication, and maintenance support.
Wooden coasters are also becoming less valuable in today's media-driven advertising world. Superlative ads where the "greatest", "highest", or "fastest" trips are what people carry are often not applicable to new wooden roller coasters, especially since most of the recording rides are steel. Amusement parks are always looking to add attractions that can be presented in advertisements and advertisements as very high, fast, or extreme, which eliminates many wooden roller coasters.
However, the arrival of some new wooden planks has bucked the downward trend. In 2006, three giant wooden sets opened in the United States: Kentucky Rumbler at Beech Bend Park, The Voyage at Holiday World, and El Toro at Six Flags Great Adventure. Another wooden coaster, Renegade at Valleyfair, opened in 2007. In Sweden Balder in Liseberg opened in 2003 and has received much attention and appreciation. It remains to be seen whether these new pads mark the beginning of the wooden coaster's resurrection, but they show that amusement parks continue to show interest in wooden roller coasters.
Maps Wooden roller coaster
Golden Era
1920 is the Golden Era of coaster design. This is the decade when many of the world's most iconic coasters are built. Some of them include Giant Dipper at Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk and colleagues at Belmont Park, Cyclone on Coney Island, Big Dipper at Geauga Lake, The Thriller at Euclid Beach Park and Roller Coaster in Lagoon. All of these rides were built during this decade. This decade is also the culmination of design for some of the world's greatest coaster designers, including John A. Miller, Harry Traver, Herb Schmeck, and the partnership between the Prior and the Church. Many wooden roller coasters are currently destroyed during the Great Depression, but some still stand as the classic American Coaster Enthusiasts (ACE) and landmarks.
The popularity may have hit a brief closing, but that does not stop certain amusement parks from building engines screaming again, and again. Cedar Point built the Blue Streak in 1964, a Philadelphia Toboggan Company production furnace designed by John C. Allen. This relatively quiet coaster design after the Great Depression was ended by The Racer on Kings Island, which opened in 1972 and triggered the second "Golden Age" of wooden coaster design that continues today. Secondary Golden Age (1972-present)
Pre-CCI
After their success with Kings Island racers, the Philadelphia Toboggan Company (PTC) built another 9 roller coasters over the next decade. About half are small family placemats, two riders similar to Racer, and two more outside and back with a special design. One of them, Screamin 'Eagle at Six Flags St. Louis, was the last coaster designed by John Allen before retiring. After this coaster, PTC stopped producing roller coasters, but continued to produce wooden roller coaster trains as a Philadelphia Toboggan Pallet. Their typical rectangular car is widely used on wooden placemats around the world.
A famous non-PTC coaster built during this time is The Beast on Kings Island. After John Allen refused to design a coaster in lieu of retirement, Kings Island built his own coaster, with a coaster designed by Al Collins and Jeff Gramke and construction supervised by Charlie Dinn. Instead of the typical outer and rear layout, the coaster extends over the forest behind the park, using the terrain to create elevation changes from the lowest point to the 201-foot high, even though the coaster is only 118 meters. Coaster also has two foothills which, while common for mine train coasters at the time, are unusual for wooden placemats. Opened in 1979, the coaster is, and still, the world's longest wooden roller coaster at 7,359 feet. Another significant wooden coaster of this era is American Eagle racing at (now) Six Flags Great America, built by Intamin in 1981, which still holds the record for high racing wooden rugs (127Ã, ft), long (4650Ã, ft) , speed (66 mph), and down (147 ft).
After a spike in the 1970s, wooden plates became stagnant as steel roller coasters became much more popular. Most of the original coasters during this time were designed by William Cobb, like Monstre in La Ronde. Another trend during the 1980s was to relocate old wooden planks that were in danger of being destroyed. Charlie Dinn, who formed the Dinn Corporation after leaving Kings Island in 1984, oversaw some of these relocations, including The Rocket relocation from Playland Park to Knoebels Amusement Resort in Pennsylvania. It now operates as Phoenix and ranks high on wooden coaster polls.
In 1988, Charlie Dinn started a partnership with Curtis D. Summers to design and build new wooden plates. Between 1988 and 1991, the couple designed and built 10 new wooden planks. While most of the typical wooden coaster sizes, some note the coaster sets. Hercules at Dorney Park, built in 1989, has the highest wooden coaster drop at an altitude of 150 feet. The Texas giant at Six Flags Over Texas and Mean Streak at Cedar Point is a large wooden mat with the same layout, with the later opening as the world's highest wooden coaster at 161 feet. After a dispute during the construction of Pegasus in Efteling, Dinn Corporation was closed and the partnership expired.
Custom Custom Coasters International
Custom Coasters International was formed in 1991 by Denise Dinn-Larrick (daughter of Charlie Dinn), her brother Jeff Dinn, and her husband, Randy Larrick. After the closing of Dinn Corporation, several other designers joined the CCI. The company's first coaster, Kingdom Coaster in Dutch Wonderland, is a small family coaster that is only 55 feet tall. As time goes by, they begin to design bigger coasters. One of their earliest well-received mats was The Raven at Holiday World. Custom Coasters took on more and more wooden coaster projects, including 7 coasters in 2000 alone (The Boss at Six Flags St. Louis, which is the largest with a height of 153 feet and almost a mile off the track; Medusa Steel Coaster in Six Flags of Mexico, Mega Zeph at the deadly Six Flags of New Orleans, Boulder Dash at Lake Compounce, Evil in Geauga Lake, Hurricane: Category 5 in Myrtle Beach Pavilion, and The Legend at Holiday World).
CCI's coaster design includes outgoing and rear spaces like Hoosier Hurricane in Indiana Beach as well as a more crooked layout like Megaphobia at Oakwood Theme Park. Megafobia is also the first company outside the United States. The CCI coaster was also unique at the time because it sometimes featured a supporting structure of an angled iron rather than a wooden beam (the track remained the same as any other wooden placemat). Most CCI coasters run the Philadelphia Toboggan Company train, though some, such as The Boss at Six Flags St. Louis, runs a train from the German manufacturer, Gerstlauer.
In 2002, Custom Coasters declared bankruptcy while building New Mexico Rattler in Cliff's Amusement Park. The company left a significant legacy on the coaster industry. The high number of wooden platforms they built, 34 during their decade of operation, helped revive interest in the wooden roller coaster and allowed modern wooden coaster designers to flourish. Designers from CCI continue to form modern wood coaster design firms, such as Great Coasters International, The Gravity Group, and wooden coaster departments at S & S Worldwide. Many of them are ranked high in timber coaster polls, including Shivering Timbers in Michigan Adventure and Boulder Dash at Lake Compounce. In 2013, Boulder Dash is rated as the world's number one wood roller coaster by Amusement Today.
Modern designer
Great Coasters International (GCI) was formed in 1994 by Mike Boodley and Clair Hain, Jr., who was a designer at Custom Coasters before GCI. The first coaster was Wildcat at Hersheypark which opened in 1996. Since then, they have become one of the major wooden industry coaster designers, with award-winning coasters such as Lightning Racer at Hersheypark and Thunderhead in Dollywood. The GCI coaster features a very crooked layout with lots of crossovers, and typically uses its own GCI wood trains called Millennium Flyers. Their designs were inspired by coasters from the 1920s, especially those by Fred Church and Harry Traver, and the company focused on making their aesthetically appealing and aesthetically appealing coaster structures.
In 2001, Swiss steel designer Intamin began producing wooden roller coasters using prefabricated tracks. Their wooden coasters are known for a large amount of airtime (including airtime ejector), seamless driving experience, and steep drops. T Express in Everland is currently the highest wooden coaster in the world with 183 feet tall. While only building 4 wooden placemats, all are praised by coaster fans, with all 4 being on top of the world's 20 wooden planks in a Mitch Hawkers poll. Since 2010, El Toro at Six Flags Great Adventure, which opened in 2006, has been ranked first in the world in a Mitch Hawkers poll.
Renowned designers of former Custom Coasters International formed The Gravity Group and in 2005 opened Hades (now Hades 360) at Mt. Olympus Water and Theme Park. The coaster features very unique elements, including airtime pre-lift parts, 800 feet of tunnels under the parking lot, and 90-degree turn curves. In 2006, The Gravity Group built The Voyage at Holiday World, a large wooden coaster that reaches 163 feet, has more than a mile of tracks, 3 90 degree turns, and has been ranked number one in the world by Amusement Today five time. Many Gravity Group coasters are very unique and built specifically for the park, such as the Twister in GrÃÆ'¶na Lund, which has a very compact layout to fit in small gardens. Their coasters have become very popular in China, with 6 placemat built there between 2012 and 2015.
Rocky Mountain Construction (RMC) has recently revolutionized modern wooden coasters. In 2011, they renovated the Texas Giant, which became extremely rugged and difficult to maintain, into a steel roller coaster. This treatment has been applied to eight other roller coasters (see Iron Rattler, Medusa Steel Coaster, Twisted Colossus, Evil Cyclone, Chaser Storm, The Joker, Steel Vengeance, and Twisted Timbers) and is now considered by the park to be an option to deal with an old wooden placemat which is outdated. In addition, RMC designed and built their own original wooden placemat. This coaster uses Topper Track technology developed by RMC that replaces some wood on tracks with steel beams to smooth the ride and reduce maintenance costs. Their first coaster is Outlaw Run at Silver Dollar City in 2012. With this new technology, RMC can create inverse wooden plates, which are usually impossible due to the construction of wooden tracks, including barrel rolls and, as seen in Goliath at Six Flags Great America, loop dive. In 2016, the company unveiled the world's first roller coaster rolling coaster, Lightning Rod (roller coaster) which opened at Dollywood in 2016, and features a magnetic launch from 45 mph up to a 200 'hill, similar to a Maverick magnetic lift (roller coaster)
Other important events
In 2000, Kings Island opened Son of Beast. Designed by legendary Werner Stengel and built by Roller Coaster Corporation of America, the roller coaster broke many world records. With a height of 218 feet (66 m), it is the first wooden roller coaster up to 200 feet (61 m). It is also the first modern wooden roller coaster featuring an inversion, a 90-foot (27 m) vertical circle. The trip was well received, but was plagued by a number of incidents. In 2006, a stress fracture in the final helix of the trip caused the train to suddenly stop resulting in dozens of injuries. Loop was removed and light rail mounted. Three years later in 2009, a park guest reported a head injury he suffered as a result of riding the Son of Beast. The Coaster was closed while the claim was investigated and never reopened. It was finally torn down in 2012.
Prefabricated Tracks
One of the most significant recent developments in wooden coaster design is the use of prefabricated tracks by Intamin. This design essentially applies the principles of manufacturing steel coasters to wood.
Traditional timber coaster lanes are built on site. It is installed layer by layer into a supporting structure, bent and mashed to the right shape, and fitted with a steel plate. Pre-fabricated trajectories, on the other hand, are manufactured in the factory. Made of many thin films of glued wood and then cut in the right shape. The track is made in a 25-foot section (7.6 m), which has a special connection on the end that allows them to snap together. This process allows for much higher precision than can never be reached by hand. In addition, trains for prefabricated wood coasters have wheels with polyurethane treads, such as steel coasters. In contrast, traditional wooden coaster trains have bare metal wheels.
This design produces a nearly smooth ride from a coaster, and is smoother than a traditional wooden coaster. However, some coaster fans can find this smoothness to diminish the experience, as it will not have the same character with traditional wooden coasters.
Prefabricated wooden plates also benefit from faster construction and less maintenance than traditional wooden placemats. This path is only bolted to the structure, which takes insignificant time compared to actually building the path. The track also remains smoother than the traditional track, which becomes rough rather quickly and eventually has to be replaced.
Wood versus steel
The wooden roller coaster provides a very different ride and experience from a steel roller coaster. While they are traditionally less capable than steel coasters when it comes to inversions and elements, wooden coasters instead rely on rougher and more "wild" journeys, as well as a more psychological approach to fostering fear. Their structures and trajectories, which typically move from a few inches to several meters by passing trains, provide a sense of unreliable and "threat" of destruction or neglect of salvation. Of course, this assumption is purely mental, as the support of roller coaster and wood track system is designed to sway with the style generated by the coaster. If the tracks and structures are too rigid, they will break under the pressure of the passing train. The track shake reduces the applied maximum force, such as a shock absorber.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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