This family spent quarantine building a backyard rollercoaster

(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/SWNS)

published 21 August 2020

With his 11-year-old nephew's sketches as a guide, Leigh Downing built a 230-foot-long rollercoaster, including every "twist, turn, and bunny hop" he dreamed up.

Downing's nephew, Calden Ashley, became enamored with thrill rides a few years ago after his uncle gave him a small marble and wooden rollercoaster. He started designing rollercoasters on his computer, and Downing's 20-year-old son, Charlie, even built Ashley a small wooden coaster he could ride. Downing felt bad that Ashley was stuck at his home in Llandyrnog, Wales, because of the coronavirus pandemic, and decided to surprise him by making a bigger and better rollercoaster for his backyard.

"We built it with a wooden frame for the structure, PVC pipe for the rails, and 462 wooden bearers that we mounted the rails on, all of which Charlie cut and filed a 40mm profile in," Downing told SWNS. "We did it all in eight days." Some modifications were done for safety reasons, and several adults tested the coaster before Ashley was able to go for a ride. Downing said it was "good fun" working on this ambitious project with his son and nephew, and they are already planning their next coaster, made entirely of steel with "a corkscrew and a loop." Catherine Garcia

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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