Coasters With the Most

BY ALISON RAMSEY

Quebec

The Monster (le Monstre) at Montreal’s La Ronde takes top spot for wooden coasters in Canada. It is the tallest (40 metres), the fastest (98 kilometres an hour), has the greatest drop (38 metres), and is the longest (1,217 metres). It is a twin-track ride where two trains sometimes race and, at other times, disappear from each other’s view. It is a definite contender for the country’s most massive ride.

La Ronde is also home to the Vampire, notable for being Canada’s first four-abreast inverted coaster. The Vampire does five inversions—anything that turns passengers upside down—including complete loops. It was built by the Swiss team Walter Bolliger and Claude Mabillard, famed for delivering a smooth ride. The Cobra deserves honourable mention, notes Coaster Enthusiasts of Canada (CEC) spokesperson Richard Bonner, for being one of only two coasters in the country where riders—four abreast—stand throughout the circuit, even as they travel upside down.

The Boomerang at La Ronde has an identical model, The Bat, at Paramount Canada’s Wonderland in Ontario. They run on circuits that aren’t continuous. Instead, riders are cranked backward up an incline, then rip through the loading station to speed upward along a boomerang, through a vertical loop, then up a hill that has no descent. The train rolls to a stop before the hill crests, then pulls thrill-seekers through the ride backward.

Quebec City’s Capitale Expresse, in Mega Parc, is a small indoor coaster that operates year-round. Though Bonner’s never ridden it, “we’ve had good trip reports” from those who have zipped along its 450-metre track at up to 40 kilometres an hour.

Ontario

Paramount Canada’s Wonderlandin Toronto is the hands-down national winner for having the most coasters—the park is packed with three wooden and 11 steel coasters—but MarineLand’s Dragon Mountain in Niagara Falls ranks first nationally for steel coasters in both height (57 metres) and length (1,677 metres). Spread over 12 hectares, it also takes up the most room as it puts riders through two 26-metre loops, even larger spirals and a bowtie.

Wonderland’s Top Gun ties with Montreal’s Vampire for having the most inversions: Riders are turned upside down five times at up to 90 kilometres an hour in a seat that leaves their feet dangling in thin air. Also at Wonderland, the Vortex is considered a prized ride for those who want the experience of travelling while suspended underneath the track, the car swinging freely from side to side. It has been called the best such track worldwide by riders delighted with its speedy, sweeping turns. The Mighty Canadian Minebuster, a wooden coaster, is still worthy of mention despite the edge being taken off its thrill factor when park renovations smoothed out some hills. Though 24 years old, it is still one of Canada’s largest coasters.

The newest twist in coaster design is to propel trains by electro-magnetic launch, as is done on the Italian Job Stunt Track that premiered at Wonderland this year. The launch of each four-passenger car—that literally looks like a Mini Cooper—is akin to that of a bullet, rapidly accelerating passengers from zero to more than 60 kilometres an hour as it takes riders through a movie stunt driver’s layout.

Wonderland’s Dragon Fire, Wild Beast, Skyrider and Tomb Raider, each has its own allure. Dragon Fire is a well-maintained coaster, built in 1981, with a snappy combination of two loops, two corkscrews and one spiral. Wild Beast, like Minebuster, is a wooden ride with air time modelled after popular coasters from the 1940s at Coney Island in Ohio. Skyrider is the second coaster, along with the Cobra, where riders stand. It takes two abreast through a loop, spiral, bunny hops and more. Tomb Raider, new last year, is described as “a flying coaster” because riders are positioned lying face down with little but swiftly passing scenery beneath them.

The West

The West Edmonton Mall’s Galaxyland is home to the largest indoor coaster, the Mindbender, which has the same eye-popping drop as Montreal’s Monster and, at 96 kilometres an hour, nearly matches its speed. CEC rates the Mindbender as Canada’s “most intense” steel coaster ride, subjecting riders to forces of 5.5 Gs at it blasts through three vertical loops.

Vancouver’s Wild Mouse at Playland is the oldest and, until recently, the only one of its kind in Canada: single cars with an elongated front end and rear-set wheels that give passengers the gut-dropping sensation that the car has left the track before snapping around sharp corners. Playland’s venerable Coaster, rated the most intense as well as the oldest wooden coaster in the country, is beloved for the air time made possible by lap-only bars, the motion and noise that only wood provides, and the styling of the track. It is reputed to be the best work of its prolific designer. For more on Coaster, read “Roller Coaster” in our August issue.

The Maritimes

The Tree Topper in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley is the Maritimes’ best ride. Measuring about 20 metres high and 350 metres long, this wooden coaster, located in Upper Clements Park, has the distinction of being built on the side of a wooded hill. Riders, loaded midway between the lowest and highest points, are treated to an ore mine theme while boarding. It was the last ride designed by American Bill Cobb, who also did the Monster.

Built in 1957, the Little Dipper is possibly Canada’s oldest operating steel coaster. This kiddie ride, that many adults also enjoy, was moved in 1992 from Ontario to Burlington Amusement Park in Prince Edward Island. A compact steel coaster called the Cyclone, located at Sand Spit, P.E.I., was plotted by revered German designer Anton Schwarzkopf, a modern pioneer in looping steel tracks, who also designed Edmonton’s Mindbender.

Youngsters on the East Coast can slake their coaster thirst year-round on the Bullet at the Crystal Palace in Dieppe, New Brunswick, which travels at a stately 18 kilometres an hour through a tunnelled spiral illuminated by black light.

(The above info was compiled with the help of Richard Bonner, spokesperson for Coaster Enthusiasts of Canada.)

Photo: (home page) © Eric Schmitdt/masterfile