Rocky Mountain Construction has developed a new
technology called “topper track” where the top two pieces of a
wood coaster’s stack are replaced with steel and filled with a high
strength concrete grout. One of these new hybrid wooden coasters
opened in 2013 at Silver Dollar City. Outlaw Run performs three
inversions – a wooden coaster first since Son of Beast’s steel loop
was removed in 2006. Also in 2013, Hades at Mount Olympics was
renovated by the Gravity Group to add a corkscrew inversion. The
stack on Hades is all wood but the support structure for the entire
ride is completely made out of steel.
Wooden coasters designed by the same company share a similar
support structure. Unique wood coasters can be built by reusing
standard pieces of wood and connectors over and over again. It’s like
building a ride with a set of Legos - all the pieces are the same but
the end result is different. The more components that can be
standardized, the more affordable the coaster can be. Less design
time too.
Recently, the line between steel and wood coasters has been
blurring, especially with the advent of prefabricated wooden tracks.
Particular coaster manufacturers, like Intamin, now industrially
prefabricate the wooden track segments which can then be shipped
to the construction site and are mounted on the support structures,
similar to a modern steel coaster. The rails can be milled to a precise
form with a very tight tolerance in a machine shop, not only
improving the ride experience but also reducing construction time as
well as service life. The pieces of track are then fixed to each bent,
creating a more rigid system as opposed to the traditional wood
coaster track which floats more freely on the structure. In fact, the
ride becomes so smooth that enthusiasts argue that these are no
longer wooden roller coasters and should be classified as something
entirely different.
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