Thunderbolt Review, Kennywood Classic Wooden Coaster | Modified Into a Bigger & Better Coaster 

My #1 favorite woodie of all time, nothing will change my mind! This coaster is just simply a masterpiece!

The front seat ejector into the chain lift might be my favorite part of the ride. . So glad I was able to get that front row ride.

When I went under phantom on the 2nd headchopper on my one ride. Phantom was going down that drop as the exact same time. That was the highlight of the ride for me and probably a rare occurrence. Best visual I've had on any coaster to this point.

I love how you gave a shoutout to Kennywood memories my dad was on the film crew for the documentary and he used to ride the rides backwards for it and to film commercials for the parks, he did that at cedar point too he said the best one was magnum because of how significant of a coaster it was bc it kickstarted all the giant coasters we love today.

Where would modern coasters be today without your invention John Miller?

Its a legitimately great ride. One of my favorite classic woodies.

Also, capacity is normally pretty good because before they added pinch brakes, they had to always fill each train because the brakes above the turtle were manually adjusted. If the train had less guests, the brakes would have to be re-adjusted. Now with the new PLC, the brakes don’t have to be adjusted anymore as the ride does it itself but it’s still common practice to fill the train, especially with a line.

Love that "T³" easter egg.

Can't wait to ride this tomorrow! Such a classic, fun ride!

That double down would’ve been unreal, probably stronger than jack rabbit with how much bigger the drop is

Row 3 is the magic seat on this coaster. Underrated.

T-Bolt is the parks Newest Woodie and my favorite wooden coaster in the park!

dang this park loves this ride, it gets taken care of pretty good def gotta ride this in the future

I love the way you research the history of the rides you review. I haven’t ridden 1/99th of the coasters you review, but you make want to tour the country for these rides. Thanks!

Great Video! I am sorry about that bad experience with the rowdys, puberty testosterone brings out the worst. I'm glad they kept you out of their shenanigans. The ravine drops on this ride are some of my favorites, the front portion is my least favorite because I am not fond of being pushed into and onto other dudes sitting next to me, however, it is the ultimate date coaster. Have you seen the two sequels of Kennywood Memories? One is an outtake video of footage not included in the first and the other is a return to the video 10 years later. I am a fan.

I guess I'll need to give this another try next time. In regards to forces, I was very underwhelmed on my only ride. As a single rider, I had no choice but to ride in the middle, since that's where the open spot was, with a group of 5. The laterals were much weaker than I thought they'd be, and I got no airtime. The terrain usage and interactions with Phantoms Revenge was cool, and it was smooth.

The ravine portion is officially one century old (c. 1924 Pippin)

It had the biggest drop of 90' when it opened as Pippen (which I didn't know it was called back then) in 1924, only beaten by a coaster with a 95' drop in 1928 which closed in the 60's, letting the refurbished Thunderbolt regain the record until Screamin' Eagle opened in 1976 with a 92' drop. Thanks for posting a review of this historic and record breaking coaster.

Ah yes, the rare "Geno" credit on Thunderbolt. Its a 2 part credit, you have to ride front row standing up, then slip down the stair into the ravine.

Probably my second favorite at Kennywood tbh

Very excited for opening day tomorrow, I am a season pass holder this year and this is by far the best woodie in the park

Call it the story of a child who was seeing things, potentially meshing a dream and a day at the park. But I believe Thunderbolt to be a haunted roller coaster. 2009-the year I met the height requirement for Thunderbolt. My parents took me on the ride once, I enjoyed it but they claimed to be too old to enjoy it. So when I wanted to go again I was naturally a single rider. I was paired up with a boy who appeared to be a mid-teenager (since you've seen that Kennywood documentary you probably have some idea where this is going). I could feel myself slamming into him on the lateral helix moment, but when the train returned to the station, he wasn't there! For several months it was just this strange story I had, then I was shown that Kennywood documentary in school. I looked more into those newspaper articles featured in the documentary about the boy who died on Thunderbolt, the boy I was paired up with was a perfect match to the boy thrown from Thunderbolt in the 1960s. Very surreal, that's for sure. That's something straight out of Closed For the Season: Carnival of Fear, a fictional film about the abandoned Chippewa Lake Park in Ohio (weird to think all 3 of Kennywood's woodies are older than Chippewa's Big Dipper).

The other John Miller coaster with a great ravine dipping finale was the old Cyclone at Puritas Springs in Cleveland

As mentioned, Kennywood is my hometown/local park. Would love to see a modded or reimagined version. The Jack Rabbit I’d love to see it refreshed.

Great video! 👍

Good to know about the single rider i fortunatly founf a party of 3 after 15 minutes so it wasn't to bad next time i just will go in. Didn't find it intensive done "worse" ones without a divider you do slight a lot though. I do love classic woody's they have at the park well the entire park is pretty charming.

Cool!

similar thing happened to me on wicker man at alton towers just without the second lap

It looks great. Fun looking. I love woodies. ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

I'm going to Busch Gardens Tampa today

Quick Question, do you have any older footage of Kumba or BGT? I am trying to create a video about the history of Kumba and it would be really cool if I had some older footage in it. That would be a huge help, but I understand if you don't have any.

I miss the tunnel. if you ride in the front seat, you will get a puff of air time when you go up the last hill into the station.

Has that straight section before the third drop ever been used as a MCBR? It is just too well placed and it would guarantee 3-train ops for an even better capacity...

Canobie Coaster said: The ride still rates highly in annual coaster polls and it's beloved by locals. The ride has been modified three additional times over the years. First, there was an unbanked airtime hill at the start of the helix section in the ride's opening year. This hill was deemed too extreme and it was removed after just one year. I'm laughing, but imagine saying: pretty extreme very extreme super extreme too extreme "Extreme" usually means high thrills. These four terms each have an adverb, "pretty", "very", "super", and "too", followed by "extreme". While the four terms all mean they are extreme, I think there are differences between them. What are? What do you think?

Did the steel curtain closure inspire you to make some review videos?

I swear I’ve gotten airtime on that helix on my last visit couple of years ago…

Ey Kennywood, add da tunnel back

52in??? Wtf.. jack rabbit should be 52in for the double down alone lol

Your story is why chaperone policies exist now 💀 Jokes aside, they’ve been doing a great job over the last few years giving it more extensive track work in the lateral bowl section and a new control system with magnetic brakes. They adjust based on how fast the train is going, so it absolutely hauls over the mid course if you have an empty train.

I would be so pissed if I saw kids like that on your story

f

Imagine what RMC could do with this

You need to speak way louder