Post by hulia-j

I recently found this 1989 video depicting a switchback roller coaster at an old Victorian Fairground. As you can see in the short film, the vehicles start at the the top (behind the camera) and uses gravity to “fly” to the other end. At this point everyone must get off the ride, switch the cart to the other track, reload and take off!

While this isn’t a cable-propelled trip, by 1989 one of the ways the empty carts were brought back to the top of the ride was by chain or cable (although I’m not sure if or which this one is.)

Now, what was the actual “first” roller coaster is debatable. There were Russian ice slides in the 15th century. And as far back as 1829, miners at the Gravity Railroad at Mauch Chunk in America, started offering rides to people who had presumably watched coal flying down tracks and thought “Hey! Why does the coal get to have all the fun?!”

Similarly cable transit has a strong background in transporting minerals and ores.

In the mining industry switchbacks were replaced by the steam locomotive, but continued to thrive in the tourist industry. Cable transit, overtaken by the automobile, quickly secured a place in the skiing market. Basically both “grew up” in the fun industry.

Now, clearly we’ve come a long way since the 6 mph “thrill” rides of the past. Speed, material, and capacity, etc. Roller coasters have benefited from cable lifts (as far back as the switchback railway), and as we’ve seen in earlier posts, cable and transit can learn from roller coasters. We often talk about multi-modal, which technology is better than the other. Instead, maybe if we promote advancements in multiple technologies, we’ll find that they all improve.