But as the mines expanded throughout the neighboring mountains, the Switchback eventually lost its usefulness. And so, in 1870, in a bout of Yankee shrewdness, the railway was converted from a ...

The very first roller coaster, designed by LaMarcus Thompson, was called the Switchback Railway and was constructed on Coney Island, New York in 1884. Thompson based his design on a German coal ...

The Switchback Railway was the forerunner of the roller coaster. Passengers sit in a small car which trundles up a swooping railway track then performs a 180 degree turn at its summit before ...