The Monongahela Street Railway Company founded this park in 1898, over 125 years ago. It features 8 roller coasters, including the fastest coaster in Pennsylvania, Phantom’s Revenge. This park is the oldest amusement park in PA. Kennywood has won many awards, even for their Potato Patch fries. They are also known for their humble origins, because they were originally a trolley park.
The Sky Rocket is Kennywood’s first launch coaster. Opening in 2010, the Sky Rocket was the first major add-on to the park in nearly a decade. In 2017, Virtual Reality (VR) was offered, as an extra feature to the ride. This steel coaster accelerates 0-50 miles per hour in just three seconds, then reaches a maximum height of 95 feet. Though the track is over 2,000 feet of length, this coaster only lasts just over a minute. The Sky Rocket also has three inversions, which makes it the first coaster to have it since the Steel Phantom was remodeled.
The Exterminator at Kennywood is a steel, indoor coaster similar to a Wild Mouse coaster, with 180-degree hairpin turns, but this coaster is in the dark. The car also spins as it drives along the black track. The Exterminator opened in April of 1999, designed by Reverchon Industries.
The Little Phantom is a kiddie roller coaster that opened in 1996. Made of metal, this small coaster stands just over 7 feet tall, in an ovular layout. The car goes around the short track multple times, and only reaches 15 miles per hour speed.
The Racer at Kennywood is the park’s first and only racing coaster, with two cars side by side, letting cars race each other. This coaster has a height of 72 and a half feet, with a drop a little under 45 feet at a 50-degree angle. The maximum speed of this wooden coaster is 40 miles per hour, with a track length of approximately 2,250 feet and a ride duration of about a minute and thirty seconds. This coaster opened in 1927 and was built and designed by John A. Miller and Charlie Mach.
The Thunderbolt was remodeled from the Pippin, which was built in 1924, in 1968. This coaster has a wooden track length of 3,250 feet, and a duration of a minute and 40 seconds. The height of the coaster is 70 feet, with a 90-foot drop, which is impressive for such an old wooden coaster. While riding this coaster, the car reaches maximum speeds of 55 miles per hour.
Jack Rabbit is a wooden coaster at Kennywood. This older coaster opened in 1920, but still has a height of 40 feet with a 70-foot drop. It’s max speed is 45 miles per hour, and has a track length of just over 2,100 feet. It has a duration of ~1 minute 45 seconds. It was manufactured and designed by John A. Miller, who is considered a ‘pioneer’ of roller coaster manufacturing.
The steel coaster Phantom’s Revenge originally opened in 1991 as the Steel Phantom, built by Arrow Dynamics. The Steel Phantom was 160 feet tall, with a record-breaking drop at 160 feet. Its top speed was 80 miles per hour and had a track length of 4,750 feet of track. The Steel Phantom originally had four inversions, all of which were removed when the coaster was rebuilt in 2001 by D.H. Morgan Manufacturing. The Phantom’s Revenge now has a total height of about 228 feet, a maximum speed of 85 miles per hour, making it the fastest in Pennsylvania, and just under 5,110 feet of track length, all of which are better than the Steel Phantom.
The Steel Curtain at Kennywood reaches the tallest height of a roller coaster in all of Pennsylvania. In fact, this coaster is 220 feet tall. This Coaster features 9 inversions, which was the first in North America to do so. One of these inversions is at 197 feet, making it the tallest inversion in the world. This coaster has 4,000 feet of steel track and only lasts two minutes. The car’s maximum speed is 76 miles per hour on this track. This coaster opened in 2019 and was built and designed by S&S.
