The Roller Coaster

The Roller Coaster
The Roller Coaster and the New York-New York Hotel & Casino
Previously known as Manhattan Express
Las Vegas, Nevada
Park section	New York-New York Hotel and Casino
Coordinates	36°6′7″N 115°10′25″W / 36.10194°N 115.17361°WCoordinates: 36°6′7″N 115°10′25″W / 36.10194°N 115.17361°W
Status	Operating
Opening date	January 3, 1997
Cost	$25,000,000
General statistics
Type	Steel
Manufacturer	TOGO
Designer	TOGO
Model	Sitdown Looping
Track layout	custom
Lift/launch system	Chain lift
Height	203 ft (62 m)
Drop	144 ft (44 m)
Length	4,777 ft (1,456 m)
Speed	67 mph (108 km/h)
Inversions	2
Duration	2:40
Max vertical angle	55°
Height restriction	54 in (137 cm)
The Roller Coaster at RCDB Pictures of The Roller Coaster at RCDB

The Roller Coaster (formerly Manhattan Express), or sometimes Big Apple Coaster is the name of the roller coaster at the New York-New York Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. The ride's trains are themed to New York taxicabs. It is the only roller coaster by TOGO still operating in the United States.

Ride

The original TOGO-built train of The Roller Coaster; this train set has been replaced with a new train set built by Premier Rides

The ride begins with a 180-foot (55 m) lift and a 76-foot (23 m) drop, followed by a hill and a 144-foot (44 m) drop. The train then traverses two inversions, a standard vertical loop and a dive loop (twist and dive element), where the train performs a 180 degree spiral and then performs a half-loop maneuver. This element is found on another coaster: the "Mega Coaster" at Hamanako Pal Pal Park in Japan RCDB.^[1] The rest of the ride is executed on the roof of the casino, and features small hills and a helix. The ride's station is themed to a New York City Subway station. Built by TOGO, it had a reputation in the past for being a rough, even painful roller coaster. Some riders have gotten bruised on the shoulders from the old trains due to the roughness of the ride and negative G-force. Currently, the ride costs $14 and $8 for a re-ride.

In 2004 Premier Rides installed magnetic brakes on the ride. In August 2006, Premier also installed new trains to replace the original TOGO trains. Since the Premier train installation, the ride has been noticeably smoother, as opposed to when the TOGO trains were in use.

References

1. "Mega Coaster - Hamanako Pal Pal (Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, Japan)". www.rcdb.com. Retrieved 2015-12-02.