Kennywood's Thunderbolt Celebrating 50th Anniversary

PITTSBURGH, PA - As Kennywood prepares to open for the 2018 season on April 28, speculation regarding a potential new roller coaster is overshadowing a significant milestone for a revered older one.

The Thunderbolt is marking its 50th year of operation.

For the past half-century, the coaster has provided heart-pounding thrills to riders for its one minute and 48-second duration. Once named the nation’s best coaster, it no longer provides the heights and speeds, or twists and turns, of more modern, mainly steel coaster built since its heyday.

Steel Vengeance, which will debut next month at Cedar Point in Sandusky. Ohio, is 5,740 feet long, has a 205-foot drop, reaches a speed of 74 mph and features four inversions. Kennywood’s most celebrated coaster is 3,250 feet long, has a maximum drop of 90 feet and has a top speed of 55 mph.

Given that comparison, a question needs to be asked: Is the Thunderbolt still relevant?

“Since the 1970s, hundreds of coasters have been built that have eclipsed it,” said Bill Linkenheimer of Ross, a past president of the American Coaster Enthusiasts. “But it’s still a favorite of many purists, there are still long lines full everyone from kids to senior citizens waiting to ride it every year. I’d say it’s still really relevant.”

Kennywood officials obviously agree, as they plan to mark the Thunderbolt’s golden anniversary in several different ways.

Park spokesman Nick Paradise said plans are still being finalized, but between May 29 and June 3, Kennywood patrons age 50 and over can purchase tickets online or at the gate for $19.68.

“We’re also producing a commemorative pin exclusive for season pass-holders and installing a special Thunderbolt flower garden near the ride’s queue line,” he said.

As some older Kennywood enthusiasts might be aware, the Thunderbolt’s roots date back nearly a century to the old Pippin coaster, which opened in 1924. The Thunderbolt still uses 1958 National Amusement Device brand cars bought for the Pippin, Kennywood historian Brian Butko wrote in his 2016 book, “Kennywood: Behind the Screams.”

Andy Vettel, a Kennywood maintenance supervisor, designed the expansion of the Pippin, which consisted primarily of a new front helix hill known around the park as "the spaghetti bowl.”

“What Kennywood did with the Pippin was revolutionary,” Linkenheimer said. “Instead of taking it out and putting something new in, they kept it, modified it and made it bigger and more impressive. I think doing that really allowed the park to survive and thrive in a very important era.”

The revamped coaster proved to be a hit and not just with riders from Pittsburgh. In 1974, The New York Times’ Robert Cartmell praised the Thunderbolt as the nation’s best Coaster.

“The Thunderbolt..shocks you from the beginning with an immediately plummet from the loading platform into a valley that is flanked by bushes and ingeniously hidden by fences,” he wrote.

Cartmell also raved about the Thunderbolt ride’s atypical conclusion.

“While the riders' sighs and giggles of relief can still be heard the train suddenly drops 90 feet before running home,“ he wrote. "A hill like this at the end of a ride is unthinkable, unfair, but it's just one of the joys to be experienced on this king of coasters.”

Along with the Racer, the Jack Rabbit, and later with construction of the Steel Phantom/Phantom's Revenge, the Thunderbolt and its rave reviews cemented Kennywood’s slogan as the “Roller Coaster Capital of the World” - a slogan since appropriated by Cedar Point.

Numerically, there’s no question the Ohio amusement park is more deserving of the title. When Steel Vengeance debuts, Cedar Point will have 18 coasters. Kennywood has five adult coasters (six if you count the Exterminator hybrid coaster-dark ride) and hasn’t debuted a new one since the Sky Rocket in 2010.

That disparity between Kennywood and larger amusement parks is the reason behind the park’s worst-kept secret: a new coaster likely will rise on the site of the Log Jammer, the popular log flume ride that was dismantled at the end of 2017.

“A new coaster is important for Kennywood,” Linkenheimer said. “You have to stay fresh to stay competitive. That’s what was happening when they turned the Pippin into the Thunderbolt.”

Linkenheimer isn’t worried that the Thunderbolt will be considered antiquated when the state-of-the art coaster opens.

“Kennywood has always walked the line between old and new attractions,” he said. “People don’t just go to ride the new rides. They go to ride what they’ve been riding since they were young.

“They go there to ride the Thunderbolt.”

Eric Heyl is Patch’s Pittsburgh Field editor. He can be reached at 412-334-4033 or Eric.Heyl@Patch.com

First two black and white photos are of the Pippin; third black and white photo is of the Thunderbolt construction in the 1960s. Color photos are of the modern-day Thunderbolt. All photos via Kennywood and used with permission.

Subscribe to Pittsburgh Patch for more regional news and real-time alerts.