Rekindling America's Love for Wooden Roller Coasters

In 2001, Fred Grubb started a construction business out of his garage with a team of 10 people and a high school diploma. Named Rocky Mountain Construction, the team specialized in repairing wooden roller coasters. As it grew, RMC began constructing externally-designed coasters, waterslides and waterparks, and buildings, but remained primarily a wood coaster repair team. Wooden roller coasters, while not as expensive as a steel coaster to produce, often become expensive in the long run because of the continual work that must be put in to maintain it. This is why the majority of new coasters built in the past 30 years have been steel, and the diminishing demand for wood coasters was once projected to only get worse until they die out completely. That is, until Fred had a few ideas.

In 2008, Fred met with the renowned Alan Schilke, one of the most influential coaster engineers in the world, who eventually helped him develop the "Ibox" track. This revolutionary track replaced the wooden track of wood coasters with steel I-shaped track. The implementation of this track meant wooden coasters could go faster, higher, and even upside-down all while providing an extremely smooth ride and maintaining the "wooden coaster feel". It also meant less stress distributed to the coaster supports, and a much lower maintenance cost. The Ibox track is by design very accessible to parks, as any existing wooden coaster could easily be converted to the Ibox track. The roller coaster industry was changed forever by Fred's innovation, as wooden coasters across America began getting some long-needed TLC again. The result was a boom of state-of-the-art record-breaking coasters that pushed the limits of the coaster industry, and that boom continues today.

In 2018, Fred's creativity changed the industry again. After many years of planning and designing, RMC released the "Raptor" and "T-Rex" tracks. These are the first steel coasters that utilize a single I-shaped track, rather than the dual-track system that is employed in every steel coaster that predecess them. The implementation of this type of track actually brings the rider's center of gravity closer to the track, allowing for much tighter turns, hills, and inversions, basically causing the rider to experience every force more intensely. On top of that, the Raptor and T-Rex tracks require much less steel than their dual-track counterparts, making them lighter and thus drastically reducing the number of ground-up supports needed, so they also take up less space. This also means it is cheaper and much faster to construct than other coaster types, making it highly appealing to parks, especially smaller parks. Only a few coasters with Raptor track exist so far and a few are being constructed, but the industry projects a boom of them in coming years, much like the Ibox boom.

Fred Grubb is definitely a Big-C. While his name and even his work may not be well-known by the general public, his creativity singlehandedly saved wooden coasters from extinction and changed the global roller coaster landscape forever. His ability to implement his ingenious design ideas in a way that is consistently accessible and highly affordable is really something unbelievable that even many other Big-C creatives have a hard time doing. Thank you, Fred!!

https://rockymtnconstruction.com

http://www.coastergallery.com/2013/Beech_Bend23.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Mountain_Construction#Technology