History
The first stand-up roller coasters in the world were actually built as standard roller coasters. Japanese manufacturer TOGO built Momonga Standing & Loop Coaster in 1979 for Yomiuri Land in Tokyo, Japan. Three years later, TOGO built Dangai at the former Thrill Valley amusement park in Gotemba, Shizuoka, Japan. Both rides added stand-up trains in 1982, with Dangai opening one day before Momonga Standing & Loop Coaster.
The first stand-up roller coaster in the United States was, like the Japanese roller coasters before it, a modified attraction. Arrow Dynamics built one of its signature corkscrew roller coasters, named Screamroller, at Worlds of Fun in Kansas City, Missouri in 1976. In 1983, Arrow designed a stand-up train for the attraction, which was subsequently renamed Extremeroller (also known as EXT). However, the track and structure were never designed for stand-up trains, and the original sit-down trains were reinstalled in 1984, remaining in place until the attraction was removed in 1988.
The 1984 season saw two stand-up roller coasters open in the United States. One was, like Extremeroller, yet another retrofit. The River King Mine Train was an Arrow-built roller coaster that opened with its park, Six Flags St. Louis, in 1971. Stand-up trains were added for 1984, and the attraction's name was changed to Rail Blazer. However, like Extremeroller the season before, the track wasn't intended to use stand-up trains and, prior to the start of the 1985 season, the original trains and name were restored. Also in 1984, 350 miles east of Six Flags St. Louis, Kings Island at Mason, Ohio opened the TOGO-designed King Cobra as the world's first purpose-built stand-up roller coaster. The attraction operated from 1984 to 2001.
The last new stand-up roller coaster to be constructed was Georgia Scorcher at Six Flags Over Georgia in 1999. In 2005, Batman: The Escape at the now-defunct Six Flags Astroworld was disassembled and placed in storage at Darien Lake.
Read more about this topic: Stand-up Roller Coaster
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