Thunderhawk (Dorney Park)
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Thunderhawk (Dorney Park)
Thunderhawk is a wooden roller coaster with an Out and Back roller coaster, out-and-back layout located at Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Originally opening as The Coaster in 1924, Thunderhawk is the oldest operating roller coaster in the Cedar Fair chain and one of the oldest in the world still in operation. It was manufactured by Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters and designed by Herbert Paul Schmeck, who studied under the legendary John A. Miller and went on to mentor another renowned designer, John C. Allen. History Thunderhawk was designed by Herbert Paul Schmeck and built by the Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters. When Thunderhawk opened on March 30,1924 and for many years after the ride was known simply as the Coaster. The Coaster was renamed Thunderhawk with the addition of the Hercules (roller coaster), Hercules roller coaster to the park in 1989. Originally, the Coaster was built as an out-and-back coaster, meaning it went straight out from the fir ...
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Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom
Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom is an American amusement and water park located between Allentown and Emmaus, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. The park features 64 rides, including six roller coasters, other adult and children's rides, and a waterpark, Wildwater Kingdom, with 19 water rides. It features some of the world's most prominent roller coasters, including Steel Force, the eighth longest steel roller coaster in the world and the second longest on the U.S. East Coast. The park is owned and operated by Cedar Fair. History Ownership Dorney Park traces its history to 1860, when Solomon Dorney built a trout hatchery and summer resort on his estate outside of Allentown. In 1870, Dorney decided to convert the estate into a public attraction. Initially, the facility featured games, playground-style rides, refreshment stands, picnic groves, a hotel, and a restaurant. By the 1880s, Dorney had added a small zoo, and gardens. When the A ...
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Herbert Paul Schmeck
Herbert Paul Schmeck (born 1890 in Reading, Pennsylvania, died 1956) was an American roller coaster designer. From 1923 to 1955, Schmeck designed 84 coasters for the Philadelphia Toboggan Company. As a designer and president, the company became the most prominent manufacturer of roller coasters in the United States. Schmeck originally worked as a carpenter for the Reading Furniture Works, before he was hired to work on a construction crew for the Philadelphia Toboggan Company. He was offered more jobs when his work ethic impressed company owners. He served as a foreman at Paragon Park on Nantasket Beach in 1916. There he worked with designer John A. Miller on the construction of " The Giant Coaster." He continued to work with the Philadelphia Tobaggan Company assisting with the construction of coasters. Despite no formal training as an engineer, Schmeck learned to design rides by studying blueprints and with his construction knowledge. In 1923 Schmeck designed his first coaster, th ...
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Twister Roller Coaster
A twister roller coaster is the generic name given to any roller coaster layout which tends to twist or interweave its track within itself several times. It is essentially the opposite of an Out and Back roller coaster, which is often a much more simplistic layout. Twister roller coasters often have the illusion of having small or tight clearances due to the track usually travelling through several support structures. This is known as a head chopper effect. Twister roller coasters were unheard of before the 1920s. John Miller is credited with inventing upstop wheels and secure lap bar restraints, both which led roller coaster designers to create wilder and twistier layouts. A good example of the difference between an out and back design and twister design is layouts of Apollo's Chariot and Raging Bull, two Bolliger & Mabillard designed hypercoaster A hypercoaster can mean one of two things: *Any continuous-circuit roller coaster with a height or drop measuring greater ...
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Lift Hill
A lift hill, or chain hill, is an upward-sloping section of track on a roller coaster on which the roller coaster train is mechanically lifted to an elevated point or peak in the track. Upon reaching the peak, the train is then propelled from the peak by gravity and is usually allowed to coast throughout the rest of the roller coaster ride's circuit on its own momentum, including most or all of the remaining uphill sections. The initial upward-sloping section of a roller coaster track is usually a lift hill, as the train typically begins a ride with little speed, though some coasters have raised stations that permit an initial drop without a lift hill. Although uncommon, some tracks also contain multiple lift hills. Lift hills usually propel the train to the top of the ride via one of two methods: a Roller chain, chain lift involving a long, continuous chain which trains hook on to and are carried to the top; or a drive tire system in which multiple Electric motor, motorized tire ...
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Fast Lane (Cedar Fair)
Fast Lane is an optional, pay-per-person line queue system offered on select rides at Cedar Fair amusement parks. The system provides shorter lines, and guests who want access must pay a fee in addition to general park admission. They are given a wristband for identification, and an unspecified, limited number are sold each day to control wait times. First piloted in 2011 at Kings Island, the system was rolled out to the rest of the Cedar Fair chain in 2012. An upgrade called Fast Lane Plus featuring additional rides is available at some parks. History On July 18, 2011, Kings Island announced the introduction of Fast Lane, a separate line queue featuring shorter wait times. The upcharge for access during its debut year was $50 per person, and the purchase did not include park admission. It was also only active from noon until 7:00PM originally, but the system was later expanded to all-day availability. Cedar Fair wanted to test the system before deploying to every location, and Ki ...
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Wooden Roller Coaster
A wooden roller coaster is a type of roller coaster classified by its wooden track, which consists of running rails made of flat steel strips mounted on laminated wood. The support structure is also typically made of wood, but may also be made of steel lattice or truss, which has no bearing on a wooden coaster's classification. The type of wood often selected in the construction of wooden coasters worldwide is southern yellow pine, which grows abundantly in the southern United States, due to its density and adherence to different forms of pressure treatment. Early wooden roller coaster design of the 19th century featured a single set of wheels running on top of the track, which was common in scenic railway rides. John A. Miller introduced side friction coasters and later underfriction coasters in the early 20th century, which added additional sets of wheels running along multiple sides of the track to allow for more intense ride design with sharper turns and steeper d ...
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Allentown, Pennsylvania
Allentown (Pennsylvania Dutch language, Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Allenschteddel'', ''Allenschtadt'', or ''Ellsdaun'') is a city in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. The city has a population of 125,845 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is the fastest-growing major city in Pennsylvania and the state's third largest city, behind Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. It is the largest city in both Lehigh County and the Lehigh Valley, which had a population of 861,899 and was the 68th most populous Metropolitan statistical area, metropolitan area in the U.S. as of 2020. Allentown was founded in 1762 and is the county seat of Lehigh County. Located on the Lehigh River, a tributary of the Delaware River, Allentown is the largest of three adjacent cities, along with Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Bethlehem and Easton, Pennsylvania, Easton, in Lehigh and Northampton County, Pennsylvania, Northampton counties that form the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylv ...
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Cedar Fair
Cedar Fair, L.P., formally Cedar Fair Entertainment Company, is a publicly traded master limited partnership headquartered at its Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio. The company owns and operates eleven amusement parks, nine included-with-admission outdoor waterparks, four separate-admission outdoor water parks, one indoor water park, and fourteen hotels/lodging in the US and Canada. History Cedar Point amusement park began as a bathing beach resort in the 1870s, and its growing popularity as a recreational destination led to the formation of Cedar Point Pleasure Resort Company in 1887. The company was founded with the purpose of expanding the resort commercially. An economic depression in the 1890s threatened the resort's future, however. A newly formed business, Cedar Point Pleasure Resort Company of Indiana led by George Arthur Boeckling, purchased Cedar Point for $256,000 in 1897. It was later reorganized as the G.A. Boeckling Company. The resort thrived under Boec ...
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Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters
Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters (PTC) is one of the oldest existing roller coaster manufacturing companies in the world. Based in Hatfield, Pennsylvania, it was established in 1904 by Henry Auchey and Chester Albright under the name Philadelphia Toboggan Company. The company manufactured carousels, wooden roller coaster, wooden roller coasters, toboggans (roller coaster cars) and later, roller coaster trains. History The Philadelphia Toboggan Company was incorporated January 20, 1904. It built and designed roller coasters until 1979. Notable designers included Joe McKee, John A. Miller, Herbert Schmeck, Frank Hoover, and John C. Allen. When Allen retired as president in 1976, the company stopped designing roller coasters but continued to work on coaster projects until 1979 when it exited the coaster-construction industry permanently. The company manufactured carousels known for their elaborate carvings and decorations. It expanded with the acquisition of the inventory of the De ...
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John A
Sir John Alexander Macdonald (January 10 or 11, 1815 – June 6, 1891) was the first prime minister of Canada, serving from 1867 to 1873 and from 1878 to 1891. The dominant figure of Canadian Confederation, he had a political career that spanned almost half a century. Macdonald was born in Scotland; when he was a boy his family immigrated to Kingston in the Province of Upper Canada (today in eastern Ontario). As a lawyer, he was involved in several high-profile cases and quickly became prominent in Kingston, which elected him in 1844 to the legislature of the Province of Canada. By 1857, he had become premier under the colony's unstable political system. In 1864, when no party proved capable of governing for long, Macdonald agreed to a proposal from his political rival, George Brown, that the parties unite in a Great Coalition to seek federation and political reform. Macdonald was the leading figure in the subsequent discussions and conferences, which resulted in the Brit ...
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John C
John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second Epistle of John, often shortened to 2 John * Third Epistle of John, often shortened to 3 John People * John the Baptist (died c. AD 30), regarded as a prophet and the forerunner of Jesus Christ * John the Apostle (lived c. AD 30), one of the twelve apostles of Jesus * John the Evangelist, assigned author of the Fourth Gospel, once identified with the Apostle * John of Patmos, also known as John the Divine or John the Revelator, the author of the Book of Revelation, once identified with the Apostle * John the Presbyter, a figure either identified with or distinguished from the Apostle, the Evangelist and John of Patmos Other people with the given name Religious figures * John, father of Andrew the Apostle and Saint Peter * Pope Jo ...
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