A roller coaster is a type of amusement ride that employs a form of elevated railroad track designed with tight turns, steep slopes, and sometimes inversions, LaMarcus Adna Thompson obtained one of the first known patents for a roller coaster design in 1885, related to the Switchback Railway, at which location, and was the first roller coaster designed as an amusement ride in America?
Switchback Railway The original Switchback Railway at Coney Island was the first roller coaster designed as an amusement ride in America. It was designed by LaMarcus Adna Thompson in 1881 and constructed in 1884. It appears Thompson based his design, at least in part, on the Mauch Chunk Switchback Railway which was a coal-mining train that had started carrying passengers as a thrill ride in 1827.
Pipeline roller coaster The Pipeline Coaster is a roller coaster model where the trains ride between the tracks as opposed to a traditional roller coaster where they ride above them. The concept was first developed by Japanese ride company TOGO, and was known as the Ultra Twister. They built six installations of the design, and five are still in operation. Arrow Dynamics created an alternate version of the concept, but it never made it past the prototype stage in development. Intamin also experimented with the pipeline concept and built and relocated one model, known as the Spiral Coaster, but it is no longer operating. Some of the drawbacks of the design include the need for large, uncomfortable over-the-shoulder restraints as well as the obstruction of the riders' view by the enclosed pipe structure.