The Mighty Canadian Minebuster (often shortened to just Minebuster) was one of the four roller coaster

Roller coaster

The roller coaster is a popular amusement ride developed for amusement parks and modern theme parks. LaMarcus Adna Thompson patented the first coasters on January 20, 1885...

s that debuted with Canada's Wonderland, an amusement park

Amusement park

thumb|Cinderella Castle in [[Magic Kingdom]], [[Disney World]]Amusement and theme parks are terms for a group of entertainment attractions and rides and other events in a location for the enjoyment of large numbers of people...

 located in Vaughan, Ontario

Vaughan, Ontario

Vaughan is a city in York Region north of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Vaughan is the fastest growing municipality in Canada achieving a population growth rate of 80.2% between 1996–2006, according to Statistics Canada having nearly doubled in population since 1991. Vaughan is located in Southern...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, in 1981, and is still operational today. It is one of two wooden roller coaster

Wooden roller coaster

A wooden roller coaster is most often classified as a roller coaster with laminated steel running rails overlaid upon a wooden track. Occasionally, the structure may be made out of a steel lattice or truss, but the ride remains classified as a wooden roller coaster due to the track design...

s at the park that are modelled after rides that existed at Coney Island

Coney Island, Cincinnati, Ohio

Coney Island is a small amusement park and waterpark located in the California neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio and Anderson Township, on the banks of the Ohio River east of Downtown Cincinnati...

 amusement park in Cincinnati, Ohio

Cincinnati, Ohio

Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...

 (specifically, the Shooting Star); Wild Beast

Wild Beast

Wild Beast is a wooden roller coaster located at Canada's Wonderland, in Vaughan, Ontario, Canada. Originally named "Wilde Beaste", it is one of the four roller coasters that debuted with the park in 1981, and is one of two wooden coasters at Canada's Wonderland modelled after a ride at Coney...

 is the other. Minebuster was originally intended to be the centrepiece of the never-built Frontier Canada section of the park.

Minebuster is an out and back roller coaster

Out and Back roller coaster

Out and back refers to the layout of a roller coaster. An out and back coaster is one that climbs a lift hill, races out to the far end of the track, performs a 180 degree turn and then races its way back to the station....

, and uses two trains, with five cars holding six riders (in rows of two) each. The ride was designed by Curtis D. Summers and built in-house. The coaster was not built by PTC despite a plaque at the operator's booth and several published reports that claim it was. PTC stopped building coasters in 1979 . It is likely however, that the construction crew consisted of workers who had previously built coasters for PTC. The two 30-passenger trains were supplied by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company

Philadelphia Toboggan Company

The Philadelphia Toboggan Company is one of the oldest existing roller coaster manufacturing companies in the world.Mack Rides of Germany dates back to 1781, but it did not start building coasters until 1921 Based in Hatfield, Pennsylvania, it was established in 1904 by Henry B...

. Canada's Wonderland's water park, Splash Works

Splash Works

Splash Works is a water park located within the park boundaries of Canada's Wonderland in Vaughan, Ontario, Canada. Entry is free with park admission. Splash Works is home to "Whitewater Bay", that was the largest outdoor wave pool in Canada, and is today home to 16 waterslides.-First expansion:...

, has two sets of slides that pass over the Mighty Canadian Minebuster.

The coaster in recent years has been hampered with some roughness, along with being modified several times for incoming Water Park additions, where some of the four hills have been joined together making them much longer with less of a peak therefore significantly reducing the amount of negative G's experienced.

Ride Layout

Minebuster will be familiar to most coaster riders as a modified out and back wooden coaster, specifically with the addition of an upward spiraling helix at the end as the most obvious modification to the traditional out and back layout. The riders make an immediate U-turn to the left after leaving the station, past the storage depot and head up the chain lift hill. At the crest of the lift, the train makes a very small drop and turns right for the big drop. You then do two negative-G hills and pass under a waterslide before climbing up a larger hill and making a turnaround to the right. You then drop down and rush over three smaller hills before entering a banked turn to the left. For a finale, you roar through a helix inside a tunnel before entering the brake run which stops the train.