http://www.mcall.com/features/family/parenting-blog/mc-dorney-s-thunderhawk-to-get-a-facelift-20160122-story.html
 
 
 

Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom is getting ready for its 2016 season by giving a facelift to one of the South Whitehall Township's park's most historic rides.

Thunderhawk, built in 1923 and originally called "The Coaster," is being refurbished with all new trains, a new paint job for the track and new lighting.

According to plans, the new trains designed by Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters, will have a classic design with three bench seats in each car that is painted red and gold. The cars also will have individual lap bars. The track will be painted a white, reminiscent of its original design. White lights will outline the classic wooden roller coaster.

I wish I would have visited in time to ride it with buzz bars, but it's great to see a classic wood coaster being refurbished & restored.

Excluding the Junior Coasters, there is still one Cedar Fair coaster that comes to mind with buzz bars. And it's at probably my favorite park in the chain.

I'd rather it not get new trains, but I'm glad it's getting some love.

My first thought was that it would finally loose that horrific yellow orange and red color scheme.

 

But no, that was Thunderhawk at Geauga Lake (formerly known as Serial Thriller at Geauga Lake, then Six Flags Ohio, then Six Flags Worlds of Adventure) which was relocated to Michigan's Adventure as Thunderhawk, not to be confused with the wooden roller coaster Thunderhawk at Dorney Park or the HUSS Top Spin formerly at Worlds of Fun which was also Thunderhawk, the latter of which now has Steelhawk instead, formerly WindSeeker as at Cedar Point where Skyhawk is an S&S Screamin' Swing, not to be confused with Skyhawk coming to Canada's Wonderland. 

 

... Firehawk.

My first thought was that it would finally loose that horrific yellow orange and red color scheme.

 

But no, that was Thunderhawk at Geauga Lake (formerly known as Serial Thriller at Geauga Lake, then Six Flags Ohio, then Six Flags Worlds of Adventure) which was relocated to Michigan's Adventure as Thunderhawk, not to be confused with the wooden roller coaster Thunderhawk at Dorney Park or the HUSS Top Spin formerly at Worlds of Fun which was also Thunderhawk, the latter of which now has Steelhawk instead, formerly WindSeeker as at Cedar Point where Skyhawk is an S&S Screamin' Swing, not to be confused with Skyhawk coming to Canada's Wonderland. 

 

... Firehawk.

A friend of ours was picking on CF for naming things with the name Hawk...and you forgot Nighthawk...and said once, "One day they're going to break down and just name a ride 'Steelhawk.'"  ...then they did...  Now he said he has to make it even more unlikely and went with an RCT style name and says, "Wooden Roller Coaster 1 Hawk." 

Don't forget Dorney also has that terrifyingly wonderful Hawk 48! 

Wouldn't it be great fr our Ki,s beloved racer.

In a word, no.

And after its Coaster days Thunderhawk was a very ugly yellow (think old weathered house) for many years.

Terp, who will say no more.

My first thought was that it would finally loose that horrific yellow orange and red color scheme.

But no, that was Thunderhawk at Geauga Lake (formerly known as Serial Thriller at Geauga Lake, then Six Flags Ohio, then Six Flags Worlds of Adventure) which was relocated to Michigan's Adventure as Thunderhawk, not to be confused with the wooden roller coaster Thunderhawk at Dorney Park or the HUSS Top Spin formerly at Worlds of Fun which was also Thunderhawk, the latter of which now has Steelhawk instead, formerly WindSeeker as at Cedar Point where Skyhawk is an S&S Screamin' Swing, not to be confused with Skyhawk coming to Canada's Wonderland.

... Firehawk.

...proving the point I just made a minute ago in another thread about having too many rides with names ending in "hawk".[emoji14]

Good thing Six Flags snatched up licensing rights with Tony Hawk before Cedar Fair's monopoly on everything "hawk" got out of-

 

...wait, what was that?

 

http://www.latimes.com/travel/deals/la-trb-six-flags-retheme-20101122-story.html

 

 

[...]Six Flags also plans to de-theme the Tony Hawk Big Spin coasters at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, Six Flags Fiesta Texas, Six Flags Over Texas, and Six Flags St. Louis, officials said[...]

 

 

...well, fudge.

Translation: Licensing agreement expired, and the chain didn't feel it was worth the asking price to renew it. That and Tony Hawk retired in 1999 according to Wikipedia.

His retirement didn't stop him from continuous license agreements via video games and the subsequent theme park attractions for the next two decades after, the former ending just last year after the abysmal Pro Skater 5. 

Excluding the Junior Coasters, there is still one Cedar Fair coaster that comes to mind with buzz bars. And it's at probably my favorite park in the chain.

Do tell! PTC still sells full size coaster cars with buzz bars....

The coaster to which I was referring is High Roller at Valleyfair, which does have buzz bars, but does not have PTC trains.

 

If you want coasters that are a little more modern and have PTC trains with buzz bars, two of the woodies at Indiana Beach fit that bill, as do both coasters at Stricker's Grove.

High Roller just about broke my heart.  It would be such an amazing ride if it was allowed to be.  The NADs with buzz bars and the design are rather reminiscent of a certain coaster from Middletown.  I said that for a couple years and it was mentioned to me that during construction of High Roller, the designers came and looked at Screechin' Eagle...though it was called Space Rocket back then.  What I wouldn't give for a ride on it running the way it was supposed to.

 

Good ole buzz bars are my favorite restraints!  I wish there were more of them around!

Not to mention the NAD's were three benchers. Then Mr. Kinzel had them hacked down to two.

Not to mention the NAD's were three benchers. Then Mr. Kinzel had them hacked down to two.

When did that happen?  They were still 3 in 2009.  I even went back and looked at pictures to verify I wasn't nuts.  ...well...I'm nuts...but about that...no. 

In looking, I'm not sure it did. It was planned, but perhaps saner heads prevailed?

http://newsplusnotes.blogspot.com/2011/09/blast-from-past-high-roller-at.html?m=1

Paging homestar...

Was any reason ever given for wanting to chop the cars up like that?

Less weight on the track means reduced maintenance.

See also Son of Beast....

In looking, I'm not sure it did. It was planned, but perhaps saner heads prevailed?

http://newsplusnotes.blogspot.com/2011/09/blast-from-past-high-roller-at.html?m=1

Paging homestar...

Oh, man, I don't remember that particular detail, and I don't have any photos of that ride from my visit. My recollection leads me to believe that they were three benchers.

Someone who I follow on Twitter who is a Valleyfair regular has a lot of photos from the park, though. Digging through those, it was definitely a three-bencher in 2014. So unless my recollection is wrong and the change was very recent, they are still three-bench.

 

Here's the photo in question. The author gives permission on her blog to post these elsewhere as long as you credit her by linking to her blog, which is found here:

https://livelaughlovee13.wordpress.com/

Then it wasn't done.

This was proposed back in the Kinzel days.

NAD trains are heavy...and High Roller once had two of them.

Whew...dodged a bullet on that one! 

 

NADs are my favorite trains.  I love the way they ride.