Timber Wolf is a

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 b ...

located at

Worlds of Fun Worlds of Fun is an entertainment complex with more than 235 acres located in Kansas City, Missouri. It is the largest amusement park and water park in the Midwest. Founded by American businessmen Lamar Hunt and Jack Steadman, the park opened in ...

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

. Timber Wolf was designed by Curtis D. Summers and was built by the Dinn Corporation. It opened on April 1, 1989.

The ride

Timber Wolf is one of two wooden roller coasters at Worlds of Fun and Worlds of Fun's first wooden roller coaster. The coaster's highest point is and its largest drop is , at which point it reaches speeds of and incurs ''g''-forces of 2.8. It also included an unusual 560-degree upward-spiraling helix until 2018, when it was replaced with a 70 degree banked turn. Timber Wolf has a sign at its entrance saying "Extreme vibrations and roughness are a nature of this ride. Do not be alarmed." After World's of Fun's purchase by

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-w ...

in 1995, trim brakes were added to the Timber Wolf's first drop, slowing the ride considerably, similar to the now defunct Mean Streak at

Cedar Point Cedar Point is a amusement park located on a Lake Erie peninsula in Sandusky, Ohio, United States. Opened in 1870, it is considered the second-oldest operating amusement park in the U.S. behind Lake Compounce. Cedar Point is owned and op ...

and

Hercules Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures. The Romans adapted the Gr ...

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 adul ...

. Inside the ride's station, there is a "chicken exit" for riders who chicken out in line. It is marked by the sign once used by

Orient Express The ''Orient Express'' was a long-distance passenger train service created in 1883 by the Belgian company ''Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits'' (CIWL) that operated until 2009. The train traveled the length of continental Europe and int ...

, which was demolished in 2003. The ride's acclaim is featured in the "History of Roller Coasters" in the

Wildcat The wildcat is a species complex comprising two small wild cat species: the European wildcat (''Felis silvestris'') and the African wildcat (''F. lybica''). The European wildcat inhabits forests in Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus, while the ...

Frontier City Frontier City is a western-themed amusement park in Oklahoma City. It is owned by EPR and operated by Six Flags. The park originally opened in 1958. Frontier City is the third-oldest Six Flags park behind Six Flags New England and Six Flags Grea ...

in Oklahoma City.

Trains

2 trains with 6 cars per train built by the

Philadelphia Toboggan Company 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 T ...

. Riders are arranged 2 across in 2 rows for a total of 24 riders per train.

Renovation

In the 2006/2007 off season Timber Wolf underwent renovation involving extensive wood work. When the new season started, riders reported that the ride was smoother. In addition to the wood work, new faceplates were installed featuring airbrushed original Timber Wolf logos, rather than decals that formerly had to be replaced every couple of years. In the 2007/2008 off season, Timber Wolf received new air powered queue gates, sporting a new aluminum finish. However, the new gates do not match up with the corresponding numbered car, which can lead to some confusion during the loading process. More renovation of the coaster was completed in 2010. In 2018, the helix on Timber Wolf was replaced with a seventy-degree banked turn constructed by

Great Coasters International Great Coasters International, Inc. (GCI or GCII) is a Sunbury, Pennsylvania-based roller coaster manufacturer which has created several award-winning rides since its formation in 1994. Starting in 2006 with Thunderbird at PowerPark in Finland, th ...

, which manufactured Prowler. From 2006 to 2017, Timber Wolf had been in the process of being retracked by GCI from the lift hill up to the track leading up to the 540-degree upwards-spiraling helix. GCI also retracked Timber Wolf from the banked turn to the brake run. Worlds of Fun also revealed their new, modernized Timber Wolf logo, which is a modernized take on the 1989 logo. The new Timber Wolf reopened on May 18, 2018, for season passholder sneak peek night.

Rankings

Timber Wolf was voted the world's top roller coaster in the 1991 ''Inside Track'' readers survey, and was rated the number one favorite wooden coaster in the 1992 NAPHA survey. However, as the coaster has aged, its ranking in more recent polls has fallen considerably.

Incidents

*On March 31, 1990, 35 people were injured when two roller coaster trains collided just short of the loading platform. The control system malfunctioned, causing the system to be unable to control two trains at once. The ride reopened running a single train until the control system was fixed to handle two trains. *On June 30, 1995, a 14-year-old-girl died after falling from her seat. A riding companion claimed that safety restraints (a lap bar and seat belt) had come undone on a sharp turn at the top of one of the ride's hills. But, Worlds of Fun officials claimed that witnesses had seen her remove her restraints and tried to switch seats and that there had been no malfunction. The park's owners at the time, Hunt Midwest Entertainment Inc., and the makers of the ride eventually settled with the girl's family for $200,000. This made Timber Wolf the only ride so far at Worlds of Fun with a fatality. *On August 2, 2014, an 11-year-old boy was taken to a hospital after suffering a concussion and a bloody nose on the ride. The boy said that as the coaster was descending down the hill, he hit his head & nose on the restraint and therefore had a bloody nose as he was exiting the ride. He had blood all over his shorts according to authorities. Paramedics wrapped the boy's nose with a towel to prevent blood from dripping on his legs and feet.

References

External links

Timber Wolf
at Worlds of Fun's website

at the

Roller Coaster DataBase Roller Coaster DataBase (RCDB) is a roller coaster and amusement park database begun in 1996 by Duane Marden. It has grown to feature statistics and pictures of over 10,000 roller coasters from around the world. Publications that have mentioned ...

{{WoF Coasters Roller coasters in Missouri Roller coasters introduced in 1989 Worlds of Fun Roller coasters operated by Cedar Fair