This is the coaster I've been dreaming about since 1988. I first heard about the Thunderbolt since reading an article on Popular Science that basically described it as a coaster turned backwards.
Basically you do not start off by heading to the lift, you don't even get to the lift until after two good drops. Here's the train headed out of the station....
...Right down into a ravine! The other reason that the Thunderbolt is backwards is that the largest drop is the last...just the reverse of every other coaster out there.
Here's a shot of the Thunderbolt as it nears the top of it's lift. The valley area of the ride is left over from the Pippin coaster built by John Miller. The new section built in the late 1960's added a helix area called "the Bowl" which as intense laterals.
The great National Amusement Device trains head on down into the helix. As of a few years ago the trains had operating headlights but for some reason they did not return for the 2000 season...maybe a Y2K glitch?
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Copyright 1999 - 2024
Paul B. Drabek
