Disneyland donates two Matterhorn bobsleds to National Roller Coaster Museum

They are known as "the holy grail" of roller coaster artifacts and now the National Roller Coaster Museum and Archives in Texas has two of them - Disneyland Matterhorn Bobsleds.

The Matterhorn at Disneyland

After a nearly six month rehab of the famed Disneyland attraction, including changing the ride vehicles from two cars able to hold eight passengers (with one person sitting in an other person's lap) to a more expansive vehicle with three individual seats per car, Disney has decided to donate two of the cars to the museum in Arlington, Texas, the museum announced recently.

“The Matterhorn started the modern era of roller coaster design and launched the themed ride industry,” museum Chairman Gary Slade said in a news release. Slade described getting the ride vehicles as "the holy grail."

In addition Disneyland is donating signage from the California Screamin’ roller coaster from Disney’s California Adventure. The roller coaster is the second longest steel roller coaster in North America and features a soundtrack, the news release states.

The Matterhorn opened in 1959 and was part of the first major expansion at Disneyland. It was built to 1/100th scale of the original Matterhorn, 147 feet versus 14.700 feet and was the first roller coaster in the world to use a tubular steel track and an electronic dispatch system.