Trip Report - Kennywood
West Mifflin, Pennsylvania - 07/19/1996
"It's (John) Miller time!"
One of these days, I'm gonna remember that it is a three-hour drive to get
to Kennywood. I didn't arrive at the park until nearly 3:00pm. Of course, that
had its advantages...there was no traffic jam trying to get into the park. Unlike
my last visit, Kennywood was not on-target to set any attendance records, though
it was a healthy crowd. There were several picnics in the park, but no huge
ones. Hey! I did something right for a change!
The Jack Rabbit
I began, as I often do, by wandering the park, making a quick stop at the smooth-running
Jack Rabbit. There is something very special about seeing so many people
having so much fun. And when you hear the train cruising down the double-dip
and notice that the train is nearly silent in the dip, then you know the ride
is doing its thing really well. Jack Rabbit is most definately a back-seat
ride, so that's where I headed. Slide in under the lap bar, click the strap together,
and before you know it, you're heading down into the ravine. It's smooth, it's
fast, and it's a lot of fun, with a good load of air-time. It's a very simple
ride...there is a deep dip into the ravine, back up and into a tunnelled turnaround,
another deep dip and a rise to the chain lift. The chain lift leads to a turnaround
over the station, and then into a deep double-dip. As the train goes over the
double-dip, riders get to find out what the lap bar is for as they are catapulted
out of their seats. Happy 75th Birthday, Jack Rabbit!
The Racer
Moments after exiting the Jack Rabbit, I headed for the Racer.
The Jack Rabbit is possibly the perfect example of the proper way to build
a ravine coaster. John Miller's 1927 Racer, on the other hand, is a good
example of how not to build a ravine coaster: the highest point on the
ride is located directly over the deepest part of the ravine. Even so, this ride
is great fun, and running really smoothly. My first ride was in the front seat,
and I noticed that there is a hint of floating air at the peak of each and every
hill in that seat. My apologies to the platform attendant whose fingers I think
I smashed when I closed and checked my lap bar. Oops! Racer also has a
very inefficient loading procedure...I counted a 4:20 dispatch interval for a
1:51 ride. Even running two trains (one pair, 48 riders total), that makes for
an hourly capacity of about 624 riders. The worst part is that it isn't because
of the crew doing anything particularly inefficient; it's just slow. Jack Rabbit
is much faster; perhaps it is a data point against flush loading. I noticed that
the local riders are generally not "into" the hand-slapping and such
of the Racer. I had noticed that before. Oh, well...
Thunderbolt
Unfortunately, I only got one ride on this one before it broke down, in Seat
#3. It's running rougher than I remember, which suprised me. It's still a fantastic
ride, though. It feels like the trim brake at the exit from the helix is hitting
a little hard, but that may be my imagination. I wish this ride weren't 200 miles
away!
Steel Phantom
It's well known that I'm not a great fan of the Phantom, but I rode it
anyway. And I was glad I did. I don't know if I have grown slightly, or if Kennywood
read my complaint from last season, or if they figured it out themselves, or what...
But it seems that the overhead-bar pivot is lower this season than last season.
I noticed last year that with the new car bodies, I suffered headbanging because
the bar landed about even with my ears. This year, as two seasons ago, the bar
battered me about the neck and shoulders instead, which is considerably more tolerable.
Consequently, I actually had a chance to appreciate and enjoy the extended stretches
of 65 and 80 mph at the bases of the first and second hills. Oh, sure, the Phantom
is still a rough, wild ride...rough referring to "violent", not "bumpy."
But it is a lot more rideable than it was last season. I even noticed a hint of
air-time at the top of the second hill. It was quite possibly the best ride I've
had on the Phantom.
Lil' Phantom
The signage on this coaster indicated I was too tall to ride, and I didn't push
the issue. Anyone know who built this kiddie coaster? I suspect that it might
be a Molina, since it looks an awful lot like the Cannonball at Adventure
World.
Other Stuff
I made an effort to ride most rides in the park. I didn't do the Roll-O-Plane,
Enterprise, Pirat (How'd I miss that one?!), or Muzik Express, and
the Phantom Phlyer (Hmmm...name based on a trip to Elysburg?) was closed
all day. Every ride in the park runs exceptionally well, from the one-of-a-kind
classics (Traver Auto Ride, Traver Tumble Bug, Aeroaffiliates Flying
Coaster) to the most modern rides in the park (Chance Wipeout). And
it is nice to ride a carousel that runs at a decent speed (about 5 RPM), and on
which the jumping action is actually smooth even if the crank arms are unbalanced.
I still wish Kennywod would put stirrups on the carousel figures. Well, a ring-arm
would be nice, too... 8-). Also, Kennywood's Whip is a 16-car monster...I
think the 12-car model provides a slightly better ride, but you don't see many
of these things anymore!
Kennywood was a refreshing trip for me. Except for Holiday World, where there
was a coaster-nut event going on, Kennywood has had the nicest crowd
of any park I've been to this season. Line jumping was non-existent, and people
even walked through empty queue sections instead of climbing the rails. Parents
did a great job of keeping their small children clear of the yellow lines and
such, and I think I only encountered one person inconsiderately smoking in the
queue the entire day. Almost without exception, this was an extremely polite
crowd. In short, if all parks had the kind of clientele that Kennywood had yesterday,
we would likely have never heard of such innovations as queue gates, platform
spiels, people-staples, and other things that Kennywood lacks. Kudos to the
Pittsburgh crowd!
And finally, a spy report: Behind the Tumble Bug, there are several
steel cylinders, each containing four rails mounted on the interior surface,
and a ladder in the middle. These look very much like the sort of tower that
is used for the Intamin Giant Drop, so there is good reason to think
the rumors may be true. I failed to check this out with the park office.
Next trip: Cedar Point
1996 Trip Report index
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--Dave Althoff, Jr.