The wood used in Wooden Coasters

I am wonering. Wooden Coaster have been coming back in popularity for quite a while, with a number of amazing designs out there.

One question I have is about the wood materials

-What types of wood do they use?
-Do the builder use a certain type of wood, or do they use wood that is local to the area oof the coaster?


Thank you for your input

Purely a guess but most modern woodies I've seen appear to use pressure treated southern yellow pine. Similar to the stuff sold in lumber yards for building decks and other outdoor wooden projects.

It is usually Southern Yellow Pine, but some coasters also use Douglass Fir or even Redwood for the track.

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Everybody calm down, the coasters do not open for another fifteen minutes.

Redwood? That would be one expensive coaster! Which ones use redwood?

Leap the Dips uses white oak for the track.
*** This post was edited by millrace on 11/9/2000. ***

I tought that The Beast used Redwood for the rails, but I may be wrong, it may be Douglass Fir.

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Where would we be without the rumor mill?

The Beast is constructed entirely of long-leaf southern yellow pine, the most common material used for wood coasters. It's just that the structure has been given a redwood stain.

Racer at Kings Island is built mostly of another wood...I believe it is Western fir, but I am not certain (I learned this about three years ago, so my memory isn't great)...which is seldom used in large quantities in wood coasters anymore because it's expensive and hard to get compared to the yellow pine. As the coaster ages, most of the maintenance lumber is yellow pine.

--Dave Althoff, Jr

Clear Douglas Fir was the wood of choice for coaster builders for many years. But as Rideman has said, it become difficult to obtain in the quantities necessary to build a coaster at reasonable cost. Pressure treated Southern Yellow Pine has many of the same properties as Doug Fir, plus you don't half to paint it, a definite plus as far as the maintainace dept. is concerned

I know that MS@CP is made of southern yellow pine and it is a beauty even though its a rough ride:)
and I think that wooden coasters do have to be made of a certain kind(s) of wood because of the weight it has to support but I really don't know
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what's life if you never get to the point, CEDAR POINT!!!

I believe I saw in the Gwazi info that it was "one million board feet of Carolina pine."

I am constantly amazed at the specific types of coaster knowledge all you fine folks have; these are the kind of details I love to learn about.

And the kind of details that I drive my wife absolutely crazy with. Man, am I all for that!

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buckweet FL
anybadcoastabeatsanygoodjob!