What is a Scenic Railway?

L. A. Thompson

LaMarcus Adna Thompson (1848 - 1919) opened his Switchback Railway at Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York in 1884. It seems he based his design on the Mauch Chunk Switchback Railway, which was a coal-hauling railway in the mountains of Pennsylvania. This is considered to be the world's first roller coaster, as it began carrying fare-paying thrill-seeking passengers in 1827. Thompson's Switchback Railway was the culmination of his ideas for gravity-driven devices constructed purely for pleasure. It was a long wooden structure consisting of a pair of tall towers between which ran undulating tracks. Riders would climb to the top of one tower and travel along the track on a small car with bench seats to the other tower, where it would be 'switched back' to the other track to return riders to where they started. The Switchback Railway was a success, and before long, every major tourist destination had one. Britain's first Switchback Railway opened in Skegness in 1885.

Skegness' Switchback Railway 

Thompson built on further developments by Charles Alcoke, who provided a loop of track to do away with the need to switch between tracks, and Philip Hinkle, who developed a mechanical lift to winch cars up an incline (the first lift-hill). Working with designer James Griffiths, he decorated his ride structures with elaborate scenery and lights to provide riders a journey as well as a thrill. Thompson opened his first scenic railway at Atlantic City in New Jersey in 1887. This ride proved even more popular than those which had come before, and soon Thompson's company, The L. A. Thompson Scenic Railway Company were building rides across America. The first scenic railway in Britain opened at Blackpool in 1907, and hundreds of other examples were built worldwide, although most were located in North America and Europe. 

Whilst they were the pinnacle of technology at the time, scenic railways are rudimentary roller coaster designs by today's standards. Structures and track are wood, and the cars are not locked to the rails like they are on modern roller coasters. Instead, the running wheels are flanged like they are on railway vehicles. Track design is limited as a result, and most scenic railways employ a brakeman to ride each car around the track to apply a brake to slow the train where necessary and to stop it in the station loading area at the end of the ride. 

John A. Miller (1872 - 1941) patented his underfriction wheel in 1919. These are secondary wheels mounted on the car in such a way they run underneath the running rail, which prevents cars leaving the track vertically. Initially, the lead to more extreme wooden roller coaster designs, featuring banked drops and turns and much steeper drops than had been possible before. Whilst scenic railways were built in the 20s, and 30s, the new technology started to take prominence and most roller coasters from then on were built using Miller's technology. Over time, Miller's technology progressed to a set of three wheels mounted around the running rail, thereby fully locking cars to the track. This was fundamental to the development of steel roller coasters, the first of which opened in 1959, and ride designers never looked back. 

Car of Great Yarmouth's Roller Coaster.
Like other scenic railways, the train simply sits on the running rails

The last roller coasters built to the scenic railway design were Big Dipper at Battersea Fun Fair, which opened in 1951 (although this was a rebuild of an older ride from elsewhere) and Big Dipper at Seaburn Amusement Park, which opened in 1955, and although based on the design of the Battersea Big Dipper, appears to be original. Today, only nine roller coasters of the scenic railway design remain, of which eight are operational and seven are still operated by brakeman. 

+ Scenic Railway at Luna Park, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia (1912)
+ Rutschebanen at Tivoli Gardens Copenhagen, Sjælland, Denmark (1914)*
+ Scenic Railway at Dreamland, Margate, Kent, UK (1920)
+ Hullámvasút at Vidámpark, Budapest, Pest, Hungary (SNBO) (1922)

+ Montaña Suiza at Parque de Atracciones Monte Igueldo, San Sebastián, Spain (1928)**
+ Roller Coaster at Pleasure Beach, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, UK (1932)
+ Rutschebanen at Bakken Klampenborg, Sjælland, Denmark (1932)
+ Hochschaubahn at Wiener Prater, Vienna, Austria (1950)
+ Vuoristorata at Linnanmäki, Helsinki, Uusimaa, Finland (1950)

*No longer operated by brakeman
**This ride is unusual as it has no timber structure - instead the track is steel and supported by concrete

Barry Island's Scenic Railway opened in 1940. It was the last scenic railway to be built in the UK to feature the sculpted cladding and scenery themes commonly installed on scenic railways.