PNE's wooden roller coaster celebrates 60 years of thrills
The classic ride has provided thrills — in 90-second bursts — since 1958
It has been 60 years since the oldest wooden roller coaster in Canada took its first set of thrill-seekers on its swaying one-kilometre track at Vancouver's Playland at the PNE.
According to the Vancouver Heritage Foundation, when the wooden roller coaster opened in 1958 it was the largest in Canada and one of the two highest roller coasters in North America.
The foundation said the coaster, made of Douglas Fir, cost $200,000 at the time (about $1.7 million today) and was built by a team of 300 workers. The ride, which takes about 90 seconds, reaches maximum speeds of 72 km/hour and has a maximum drop of 23 metres.
Tim Baldwin, from Grand Prairie, Texas, is a member of American Coaster Enthusiasts, a non-profit group that specializes in everything roller coaster. He says Playland's wooden roller coaster is "just magnificent."
"[The coaster] keeps getting better and better as the ride goes through. A lot of times all the big bang starts at the beginning and then it starts to get a little bit tame as a roller coaster goes along.
"But because the curves get tighter and tighter [in this coaster], the action is just fantastic," Baldwin said.
'An endangered species'
Today, the coaster is one of the few classic wooden roller coasters still in operation.
The American Coaster Enthusiasts call wooden roller coasters "an endangered species."
"There are not as many being built as steel coasters, so eventually over time, unless more and more parks start building wooden coasters, they will dwindle away," Baldwin said.
Although wooden coasters proliferated in the early 20th century — at their peak, nearly 2,000 were in operation in the U.S. in the 1920s — they were slowly phased out, primarily because of the rise of steel.
Steel, which can be plied and bent in any direction, allowed for the incorporation of loops, more dramatic twists and drops, and complete inversion. It is also comparatively easier to maintain a steel roller coaster than a wooden one.
Some, however, still swear by the pleasure of the wooden coaster.
"Pure fans love the wooden coaster," Baldwin said.
"To me, it engages more of your senses than a steel one does because you kind of feel the flex of the wood, you smell the grease, there's just a certain vibration, a certain feel that just captures the essence of what a great, classic roller coaster experience is like."
Playland's wooden roller coaster was declared a site of special significance by the City of Vancouver on its 50th birthday in 2008, and it was given special designation as a "Coaster Landmark" and a "Coaster Classic" by the American Coaster Enthusiasts in 2009.
"If I could pick that right up and move it closer to me, I'd be in heaven. I think it's one of the finest pieces of roller coaster love in North America," Baldwin said.
Playland's regular season runs from May to the end of September every year.