Why is steel better than wood for roller coasters?

Steel rollercoasters are well-known for their speed, height, and steep drops. They usually have plenty of loops and twists and turns in their tracks too, allowing riders to experience the exhilarating rush and push of gravity many times during one ride.



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Wooden coasters do offer one advantage over steel coasters, assuming you're looking for palm-sweating thrills: they sway a lot more. Tubular steel coasters allow more looping, higher and steeper hills, greater drops and rolls, and faster speeds. How did coasters come to be? Read more about their history.

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Steel roller coasters generally feel smoother to ride than their wooden counterparts. Because of their strength, they can be more complex and make faster turns and twists without injuring riders. There are many different types of steel coasters, such as flying, inverted, floorless and suspended.

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Additionally, steel coasters lose less energy to friction. Rather than rattle along the tracks like wooden ones do, the wheels on steel coasters are surrounded by the track itself, making for a smoother, faster ride.

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While there are some concerns about their safety, wooden roller coasters are generally considered to be just as safe as their steel counterparts.

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Steel coasters have a generally smoother ride than their wooden counterparts, and due to their strength, rides can have more complex and faster turns and twists without injuring riders.

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Far more than steel, wooden coasters can get rougher over time, as rails and ledgers sag and bend under the weight of a 15,000-pound car bouncing around the track. A poorly maintained wooden coaster can become a rough, unpleasant ride.

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That said, wooden rides present their own set of safety challenges. If you don't look after wood carefully, it can rot. We fight against that by coating the tracks with weather-resistant wood stain. We also check on the wood's condition every week, replacing any parts that are showing signs of rot.

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The first tubular steel-tracked coaster was Disney's Matterhorn Bobsled Ride, built in 1959. Steel rides were quieter — but more importantly, they allowed designers to build twists, turns and other thrills not possible with wood coasters.

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The two major types of roller coasters are wooden and steel. Features in the wheel design prevent the cars from flipping off the track. Wooden tracks are more inflexible than steel, so usually don't have such complex loops that might flip passengers upside down.

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There's a grit, akin to making a meal from scratch yourself or driving a dirt road off the beaten path. If you want to feel like you've REALLY ridden a roller coaster, really had your bones rattled and your nerves tested, wooden coasters are where it's at.

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A major part of the wooden coaster's appeal comes in the way the track sways as the coaster makes its way around it. Many wooden tracks are designed to sway up to a foot or more for effect. Stress limits are built into the design, so there's no inherent risk.

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A wooden coaster's train seems to fight to stay on the track. Functioning as a shock absorber, the coaster structure is designed to sway with the force of the moving train. The wooden roller coaster experience can be different throughout the day as the temperature or the weather changes.

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The construction of traditional wooden rollercoasters might not allow for the same high speeds as steel rollercoasters, but don't let that fool you. Wooden ones are just as exhilarating as their metallic cousins!

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