Kennywood: 2019 S&S Coaster - Steel Curtain

[BigAl]

Screamscape has heard that Kennywood may be looking into getting a RMC Hybrid steel and wooden roller coaster for either 2014 or 2015:

2014/2015 - New Coaster - Rumor - (12/21/12) The latest rumor from Kennywood spies claims that the park may opt to remove the Raging Rapids ride along with the Kennywood Railroad to make room for a new roller coaster in the years to come. The combined plots of land, that start off right next to each other near Thunderbolt, would open up a nice narrow pathway all along the back of the back over to where the Rainroad turns around behind the Log flume, which would be just perfect for an out and back style coaster layout.
Speaking of the coaster layout… the early rumor is that Kennywood may be looking into adding their own Wood/Steel Hybrid coaster project from Rocky Mountain, complete with inversions that could arrive in 2014 or 2015. Stay tuned!

There's not much to report yet but the possibility of another RMC Hybrid is great news!

 

[BigAl]

Retired Kennywood CEO Carl Hughes passed away recently. He worked at the park for 50 years and had a very big impact on the park. An article about this can be found here. R.I.P. :/

 

[BigAl]

Yesterday Screamscape posted about Kennywood having potentially purchased a plot of land with part to be used for a new coaster:

(3/4/13) I’m not sure how true this is, but I did receive a rumor claiming that Kennywood has acquired the land directly behind Racer and Jackrabbit for future park use. If true, I highlighted the possible property in question, marked off by Google Map’s property lines, so show what area may be involved. From what I can tell, this area is mostly part of valley that contains what looks like an old defunct factory/warehouse structure, but also includes property that extends down alongside the nearby railway. What I also find interesting was how this lines up with the previous rumors indicating that Kennywood’s next possible big coaster might be an out & back style ride that was to run from the area near the Rapids and kiddie train area, down along the backside of the park and into an area described as being behind the flume ride, which is exactly where this new property would be.
So is this another bogus rumor, or is Kennywood looking to expand their property line to include this new valley? Can anyone else confirm this possible land purchase?

It has now apparently been confirmed that Kennywood have indeed purchased said plot of land:

Park News - (3/5/13) Lots of feedback has come in regarding the Kennywood land purchase story from yesterday. Several readers confirmed that at the ACE Western PA Coasterbash event on Saturday, the park did confirm to those in attendance that the park has finalized the land purchase of the large valley behind the Jack Rabbit and Racer from the Union Railroad. The large building seen in the image posted yesterday is left over from the former owners as a building used to repair and maintain locomotives.
Kennywood’s stated immediate use for the property is to restore this building and use it as a large storage facility for the park where they can keep their large Fright Night haunt props and Holiday Lights displays. From what I’m told the land they now own includes the valley property that extends under the bridge. Based on the property lines, this goes almost all the way to the now empty site of a former KMart store which was purchased by Kennywood years ago, before the park was sold. (There appears to be a separate piece of property in the way (labeled as Unknown in my new map), but depending on who you talk to, some claim this is owned by Kennywood as well. The former Kmart plaza was bought back in 2006 (link) back when the original intention was for Kennywood to build their very own hotel and indoor waterpark resort on the property. Sadly, those plans never materialized. According to this other article, they mention the 22 acre purchase of the Kmart plaza, but then mention a 19 acre purchase from Union Railroad also took place shortly afterwards, which involves property in that valley as well.
A lot of this property has been talked about in various deals with Kennywood for years, going back to when a new expressway was planned to come close to the park and they were hoping for a big jump in attendance along with it. The expressway never happened, so a long of proposed land-deals were put into limbo for a number of years, but looks like the last piece was just finalized back in November 2012 (link). Meanwhile the former Kmart building (which was used for park storage) was demolished a few years ago, due to some kind of zoning dispute, thus the need for a new storage facility.

They also included two images:

 

[Sam]

No news on the hybrid, but a nice bit of Kennywood news from ACE.

Headlights coming back to the @Kennywood_PR Thunderbolt for the 1st time since 1998! They will use LEDs! #Eastcoaster pic.twitter.com/TpzsTHIlpt

Parks caring about heritage ftw.

 

[Rob]

Bump! Plans for Kennywood's 2018 coaster were shown at a recent council meeting and of course they have leaked out (source):

It's thought that this could well be an RMC!

 

[Matt N]

Sorry for bumping the thread, but Kennywood has today begun teasing a project codenamed Project 412 which has now broken ground for 2019. Here's the first post:

Interesting stuff! I'm pretty stumped with regards to what it could be, but I've heard multiple different rumours across the internet with regards to what this could be. I saw it mentioned in one place that this could be an Intamin LSM Launch Coaster, but it could also be a variant of the RMC coaster that Screamscape mentioned a couple of years back. Nobody knows until the announcement, though.

Also, for those of you that don't know, what look like footers for a steel coaster have apparently appeared in Kennywood's main lagoon.

 

[Matt N]

Sorry to bump the thread, but a few updates from Kennywood's social media pages have been released and new rumour has apparently emerged about this ride.

Let's start with the social media updates. We've now had the numbers 220, 3 and 24 given to us by Kennywood, as well as the 197 that we started with.

Now onto the rumour. Some rumours initially spread that the ride would be manufactured by Intamin and would be an LSM Launch Coaster, similar to Soaring with Dragon at Wanda Hefei in China:

This was because some of the initially leaked stats appeared similar. However, as more emerged, this rumour started to be dropped because the latest stats we have do not match Soaring with Dragon very closely. Also, markers then started being painted over with things like "Wrong", "???" and "Not Sure", so people began to move away from this rumour.

The newest rumour I've heard is that it may apparently feature a 220ft lift hill and will drop into the ravine with a drop that is over 300ft tall. It will then reportedly go into a second lift hill that is 197ft tall. 3 inversions will apparently be featured during the ride. And to top it off... the ride may reportedly be manufactured by S&S.

I don't quite know what to think, personally. I think it sounds amazing, but slightly bizarre at the same time. S&S is also a slightly bizarre manufacturer choice, in my opinion, but I have faith in them to pull this off. I think this might be some sort of new concept from them, as nothing they currently sell would fit this description.
P.S. Sorry for the long post.

 

[Rick]

S&S would be a slightly off the wall choice. Their larger coasters have not been without problems.

Interested to see what happens. Kennywood is a wonderful park.

 

[Matt N]

S&S would be a slightly off the wall choice. Their larger coasters have not been without problems.

GaleForce was a bit of a GaleFarce () for them, admittedly, but S&S builds plenty of compressed air coasters and 4D Free Spins without problems, as far as I'm aware, so this could be a problem-free development.

On an unrelated note, I reckon we could be seeing a new concept from S&S here, as I'm not sure whether any of their current portfolio of coaster models would fit the rumoured description. I reckon we could potentially see the premiere of a standard sitdown model from S&S here, potentially with overhead lap bars akin to the Mack Megacoaster ones. Or maybe some nice B&M hyper-style clamshell lap bars, as I believe some of S&S's Chinese air launches already have clamshell-esque lap bars, correct me if I'm wrong? I think that this model could potentially be like their take on Mack's megacoaster in that it will be applicable to many different types of coaster; Mack's model, for example, can build coasters as small as Manta at SeaWorld San Diego and as large as DC Rivals at Warner Bros Movie World! Admittedly, they are separate model lines, but they use very similar ride systems.

It might not be from S&S at all, for all we know. Just a rumour I heard.

Oh the rigors of coaster speculation!
P.S. Sorry for the long post.

 

[Rick]

It depends how long you want to go back. The company is very different now than what it was, so perhaps that gives the a pass.

That said, they have a fairly dubious track record. As you mentioned, Galeforce didn't go to plan. Merlin's Mayhem opened a year late due to a multitude of problems. Ring Racer was a joke from start to finish with some fairly shocking problems. Sky Swat was a failed experiment with both rides being a nightmare for their respective operators. Their launch coasters in China have had their own problems too - not to mention Hypersonic.

That's not to say it won't be a great ride.

 

[Rob]

S&S would be a stange choice, not least because they don't seem to have a history of building big lift hill coasters (all their large coaster are launches). Then coupled with their track record of messing things up something doesn't seem right.

Seeing that Sansei who own S&S also now own Vekoma, a new model Vekoma would make more sense.

 

[Matt N]

Well, the guys at Kennywood Connection have come up with a pretty interesting conclusion as to what Project 412 could potentially be. Here's their thoughts: https://www.kpconnection.com/2018/06/so-what-is-project-412-heres-our-guess/
If you don't want to read the article, they are guessing an S&S Air Launch Coaster, similar in style to the Bullet Coaster/OCT Thrust rides found at Happy Valley theme parks in China. I reckon that this could potentially be really good for Kennywood if it is, and quite different to anything else being built in the USA at present, but Sky Rocket was only built 8 years ago, so I'm not sure if they'd want another thrilling launch coaster so soon after, especially considering that Sky Rocket is their newest coaster (I think?)

Also, Kennywood revealed today that the next number is 120. If the S&S Air Launch Coaster rumour is true, then I reckon that this could potentially be the speed in mph, as S&S says that the model can reach a speed of up to 135mph.

 

[speedy]

All numbers revealed but one now, here's an article from News Plus Notes about what it could be:
http://newsplusnotes.blogspot.com/2018/07/kennywoods-2019-project-scratch-off.html?m=1

To be totally honest I found this teaser really boring, so haven't being paying any attention to this project. Looks like it's actually shaping up to be sonething really great!

 

[Rob]

I haven't been paying too much attention to the numbers, however Kennywood are now asking people to match 9 words from this word search to the 9 numbers revealed. The first 12 to do so win an 'ultimate new ride experience'.



Needless to say that there are more than 9 words hidden!

 

[speedy]

Here's the POV. I think it looks great - loads of huge inversions and big drops. Something a bit different thats for sure!

 

[Matt N]

To offer some additional context, the ride will be named... Steel Curtain! A few facts that were revealed about the ride at the announcement include:

• 220ft lift height
• 197ft inversion (world's tallest inversion)
• Ride will break 3 records
• Will be manufactured by S&S, as rumoured
• Will feature 9 inversions (most in North America)
• Roughly 4000ft of track.
• Will have 2 24-rider trains
• Will feature a structure that is an airtime hill with a zero-g stall going underneath it
• Other inversions include a banana roll and a dive loop
• The ride will be themed to the Pittsburgh Steelers, a local football team, and will be part of a new themed area themed to them

The ride certainly looks different, that's for sure!

 

[speedy]

I just hope it's one of S&S's more reliable installations.

 

[Brad97]

Should've called it Iron Curtain. World's first coaster themed to the Soviet Union?

Seriously though, looks bonkers. Hopefully S&S won't find a way to mess it up.

 

[Skyscraper]

Ironic how my home city has a "Steelers" sports team as well.

 

[Danny]

Mandy will be fuming if she ever sees it looking dirty.