Untitled Document

Volume 1, No. 9. June 1, 2001

It's a roller coaster!
Kennywood in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, announces the rebirth of Phantom's Revenge, May 18, 2001. Measurements: 3,365 feet long (1,020 meters), 160 feet high (48 meters), 232-foot drop (70 meters), 85 mph (136 kph). Delivered by Morgan Manufacturing.

Typical Kennywood: why waste time—and ridership—waiting for a celebration. The Phantom's Revenge was decreed fit for service at 3 p.m. Friday; at 4 p.m., the public was riding. Publicity Director Mary Lou Rosemeyer barely had time to email notification of a "Breakfast With the Phantom" media event 40 hours later. Sunday morning, about three dozen members of the local media and American Coasters Enthusiasts showed up for the first "official ride" on the re-designed steel coaster.

It was not hard to improve on the beat-'em-up original Steel Phantom, but Revenge is truly sweet. It interacts twice with the wooden Thunderbolt (still closed as the park re-assembles it's track) as well as the Turtle Tumble Bug. Though lacking the inversion of the original, the last third of Revenge is a buckin' bronco-like ride with air time even heading into the brake run. "I was surprised at the little lifts," said 66-year-old Bill Linkenheimer Jr., Pittsburgh resident and father of ACE president Bill Linkenheimer III. He had ridden Steel Phantom several times until, he said, "I started to get an aversion to inversions." The new look, he felt, was just right. "This is going to attract more people than they thought possible."

Which park officials still see as a challenge. They must convince those who loathed the original that this is a different ride (though the park has the Pippin-cum-Thunderbolt tradition on its side). For those who worshiped Phantom and consider any redesign sacrilege, the park must prove the ride's resurrection keeps the best of the old (again, the Pippin-Thunderbolt tradition holds true).

Utilizing another Kennywood tradition, however, word-of-mouth was already carrying the campaign forward. As Pete McAneny, the park's Vice President and General Manager, watched the first weekend running of Phantom's Revenge, he gauged rider reaction. "I didn't see a single person say it was not an improvement over the original ride," he said.

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