The Record-Setting History of Kennywood’s Steel Phantom, The Phantom’s Revenge

Kennywood Flips Upside-Down

Roller coasters by the 1970s had become more sophisticated than the classics of yesteryear. Steel looping roller coasters revolutionized amusement parks thanks to the state-of-the-art designs of Arrow Development and Anton Schwarzkopf.

Nearby parks were raising the bar with looping coasters such as Corkscrew at Cedar Point and SooperDooperLooper at Hersheypark. To stay competitive in the region, Kennywood welcomed the future by rolling out a looping coaster of its own.

The park, in partnership with Intamin, contracted German engineer Anton Schwarzkopf to manufacture a new installation of his shuttle loop model. The $2 million investment was built on the former site of the park’s oldest building, once occupied by a funhouse and, later, a bumper car attraction; the structure was demolished in 1979 to make way for the new Schwarzkopf coaster.

Laser Loop Opens

Known as Laser Loop, Kennywood’s latest coaster debuted April 19, 1980. Laser Loop’s flywheel launch accelerated to 54 mph in 3.8 seconds into a vertical loop, up a spike, and falling back to complete the layout in reverse.

A staff writer from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette shared an interesting review of the shuttle loop, explaining, “It is a thrill—you feel as helpless as a sausage in a rocket blastoff.”

Laser Loop quickly became part of Kennywood’s identity. At times, its signature spiral structure was strung with holiday lights in the winter and used as a launch point for summer stunt spectaculars.

Laser Loop Throws Kennywood for a Loop

While Laser Loop was a hit with guests, management described it as a headache to maintain.

Kennywood may be a smaller local park, but it puts great care into maintaining its coasters. For example, the park’s maintenance team routinely inspects and replaces the thousands of feet of wooden track across its historic coasters. Each section of wooden track is replaced as needed, resulting in a complete rebuild of each layout over the course of about every 10 years.

Kennywood’s dedication to keeping its wooden coasters in tip-top shape was impressive to say the least.

Maintaining Laser Loop, however, was more of a challenge for the park. Upkeep included daily morning inspections by a two-person crew, taking around five hours to cover both Laser Loop and its wooden neighbor, Thunderbolt.

To fully inspect the track, the crew would walk and climb Laser Loop’s layout, including its 139-foot spike. In a 1981 interview with The Pittsburgh Press, a maintenance worker described the dangers of the job, sharing, “Being such a tall ride, it does move in the wind. When you’re up there, you can feel it sway a bit.”

The task also required climbing halfway up Laser Loop’s 72-foot vertical loop to visually inspect the upper half of the inversion. As one crew member told The Pittsburgh Press in 1984, “You really have to be careful. If you slip, you’re history.”

The German-engineered shuttle coaster came with its own set of maintenance challenges. Unlike Kennywood’s other coasters, Laser Loop relied on an advanced computer system that only understood German, according to a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette report. Also, replacement parts for the coaster were expensive, being shipped from Europe.

Closing the Loop

Though the behind-the-scenes maintenance was demanding, Laser Loop was always popular. However, its complications proved too much for the small park. Its days at Kennywood were numbered.

Relatively speaking, Laser Loop was a smaller coaster that had been outclassed by others in the region. It was located on the edge of the park near the paid parking lot, which management had been eyeing for a possible expansion; the coaster was a headache and stood in the way of future developments. In addition to those challenges, the 1990 season marked Kennywood’s lowest attendance since the ‘70s, largely due to a rainy summer.

Park officials had to make a change to get visitors through the turnstiles the following season.

“We love the Laser Loop, but something had to go.”
Harry “Henny” Henninger, park president of Kennywood, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 1990

Thus, Kennywood announced Laser Loop would be retired. The coaster, having thrilled more than 12 million riders across its 11 years of operation, launched for the final time on Sept. 3, 1990.

The coaster was purchased by a European firm to be relocated to another amusement park. It was disassembled shortly after closing, making room for Kennywood’s next major project.

For a park with more than 90 years of history, retiring a major attraction was significant, but it was necessary for something bigger. It was a decision many parks were making at the time, and one manufacturer in particular was taking the industry to the top.