A Mine Train roller coaster is recognizable by its trains. The trains typically resemble a locomotive engine at the front (sometimes with a driver’s cab) and have mine carts or carriage-styled cars for the rest of the train. Mine Train coasters are themed around runaway mine trains, the Wild West, or mountain trains.
Not all Mine Train coasters coast on gravity like traditional roller coasters; some use motors built into the train to power them around the track, similar to a Scalextric car on a track.
Mine Train coasters tend to have multiple lift hills but no inversions. Instead, the track uses banked turns, helixes, and straight sections. Mine Train coasters use steel track, though some parks add wooden railway sleepers to give the ride an authentic locomotive feel.
The first Mine Train Coaster to open was Run-A-Way Mine Train (now named without the hyphens) at Six Flags Over Texas, USA, in 1966. Run-A-Way Mine Train was the first major coaster of the time to break from traditional wood and use tubular steel track.
Arrow Dynamics (then Arrow Development), with design engineers Ronald Toomer, Karl Bacon, and Ed Morgan, advanced the steel coaster technology into a new era. Run-A-Way Mine Train features three lift hills and two tunnels, one of which travels under the park’s Caddo Lake. This feature is regarded as the world’s first underwater coaster tunnel.
Vekoma started building Mine Train Coasters in 1992 when they were commissioned to build the famous Big Thunder Mountain at Disneyland Paris in France. Big Thunder Mountain was a new addition to Vekoma’s portfolio, leading to the MK-900 model, where 900 represents the track length in meters, and it has three lift hills.
Vekoma also produces a shorter 785 model that has two lift hills. Vekoma Mine Trains are customizable to suit any park’s requirements.
Almost all Vekoma Mine Trains have elaborate, large frontages that add to the ride’s theme. The most notable exception is Disney’s Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, which features the world’s first swinging cars and some of the most advanced animatronics ever found on a coaster.
Mine Trains by Mack Rides are powered coasters that do not use conventional roller coaster physics to move around the track. Electric motors power the coaster’s wheels, letting operators control speed and designers create more interesting layouts. For example, the Runaway Train at Alton Towers, built by Mack, would take up more space if it used a conventional lift hill and drop, so Imagineer John Wardley could go nuts with the layout.
In some respects, Mack Power Coasters aren’t technically Mine Train Coasters, but they often use powered technology for this type of coaster. Mack’s Blauer Enzian coaster type, which they have built 13 of, is typically used as a Mine Train Coaster.
Bob Express at Bobbejaanland, Belgium
Gruvnanan at Skara Sommarland, Denmark
Alpenexpress Enzian at Europa Park, Germany
Dynamite Express at Familiepark Drievliet, Netherlands
Zamperla makes various coaster types themed to mine trains, although only one model (pictured left) carries the moniker. It’s virtually the same style as a Mack Rides version, just smaller, and only a handful have been built.
The Family Gravity Coaster model is the most common in the company’s lineup, with over 20 Mine Train-style coasters of the nearly three dozen in operation.
Although most Zierer Flitzer coasters are themed to racing cars, one was styled as a Mine Train. Silver Mine at Freizeitpark Plohn in Germany opened in 2000 and featured a fully themed station and custom cars that were designed like runaway mine carts. Unfortunately, the ride closed in 2017.
Like Zierer, L&T Systems designed one of its compact coasters to resemble a mine train. Runaway Train operated at Gillian’s Wonderland Pier on the Jersey Shore from 2006 to 2018 before relocating to Atlantic Splash Adventure in Canada, where it has operated since 2024.
The SBF VISA Group has built more than half a dozen Mine Train MX601 coasters. MX601 coasters have a figure-eight layout; they take up very little space and use tire propulsion to move the train up the lift hill, leaving only the final helix as a coasting section.
However, with the advent of their extremely popular spinning coaster models in 2014 (MX608) and 2016 (MX609), production of these models has nearly ceased.
