Money, grades, love, heartbreak… There is no space in your head for any of that while you are on a roller coaster.

Pennsylvania has several of those, and eleven roller coaster in the state were ranked among top 100 in world in 2016, which is more than any other state in U.S. or any foreign nation.

A survey conduced by 500 roller coaster enthusiasts from around the world determines the annual “Golden Ticket” top 50 lists for wooden and steel roller coasters. The awards also asses other aspect of amusement parks and are basically Emmys of the theme park industry, which is organized by trade publication Amusement Today.

The roller coasters in Pennsylvania are not the fastest nor the tallest and certainly they are not even the newest - one is about 100 years old.

But according to enthusiasts, there is something special about them.

Golden Ticket awards communications coordinator, Tim Baldwin used the word “magic”, when he was talking about the kind of roller coaster Pennsylvania specializes in: timeless attractions worth taking your kids (or grand-kids) back to experience.

While most of the amusement parks closed and tore down their old wooden roller coaster after the 1970s theme park craze, several Pennsylvania parks bucked the trend, Baldwin said.

Several Pennsylvania roller coasters are a page out of history, which is thrilling in a way that is impossible to recreate.

“You laugh together. You remember it. You hold on to it," Baldwin said.

Kennywood's Thunderbolt, built in 1968 is ranked 21st best wooden roller coaster in the world.

The West Mifflin park will not alow single rider on. Because they are designed to be ridden together, the curves smmash you up against your riding partner with no divider separating you.

Now, it is hard and also very expensive to get noticed for a state-of-the art thrill machine.  Hersheypark spend nearly $25 million on 200 foot tall Skyrush in 2012 and now it does not even show up in the awards.

That's not unusual: As gimmicks go in and out of style, the list can look a lot like Billboard's constantly rotating top 40, Baldwin said.

But the thrills of many Pennsylvania coasters never get old.

Knoebels' Phoenix is renowned among enthusiasts for its "airtime" — negative g-forces that lift riders out of their seats. It's been ranked in the top 10 ever since the awards started in 1998.

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