Arewooden
roller coasters
thebest?
A
century ago, the
Rutschebanen
(“roller
coaster” inDanish)was a
marvel of engineeringand
design. Itwasdesignedby
the “fatherof thegravity ride”, LaMarcus
AdnaThompson, to replicatea trip through
snow-cappedmountains, andwasoriginally
unveiledat the 1914BalticFairbefore it
moved toCopenhagen’s Tivoli Gardens
amusement park thenext year.
Theworld’s second-oldest continually
running roller coaster (theoldest is at
LunaPark inMelbourne) is still going
strong – somuch so that it’s Tivoli’smost
popular ride, with 1.5millionpassengers
a year.What they get is oneof theworld’s
very few side-frictioncoasters – there
isn’t a set ofwheels under the track to
prevent cars frombecoming airborne–
andoneof only four on theplanet that
still uses abrakeman in thecar,meaning
that no two rides areexactly the same.
And this year it’sbeen returned to
itsoriginal design. In the 1920s, local
authorities got ridof the ride’smountain
peak, arguing that visitors arrivingat the
central station should seecitybuildings
rather than fakemountains. But this year
themountain’sback,meaning that you’re
essentially riding theRutschebanenas it
was in 1914–almost.
AsTivoli returns its100-year-
oldwoodenrollercoaster to its
original state,weask ifwooden
coastersarehavingamoment
2
1
3
Words
⁄
Ed Frankl
018\
n
n
A
