Hercules (roller coaster)

Hercules was a wooden roller coaster located at Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Manufactured by the Dinn Corporation and designed by Curtis D. Summers, the roller coaster opened to the public on May 6, 1989. It set a world record for the longest drop on a wooden coaster at 151 ft, surpassing the previous record of 147 ft set by American Eagle at Six Flags Great America in 1981. Hercules was the third wooden coaster to be constructed at the park.[1][2]

History

In the 1980s, Dorney Park began making plans to add a significant attraction. Chairman of the Board and Dorney Park CEO Harris Weinstein decided that he wanted the park to have a world-class wooden coaster. Engineer Curtis Summers visited the park in 1987 to survey the site and start formulating a layout.[3]

On July 15, 1988, Dorney Park announced that a new wooden roller coaster would be opening for the 1989 season.

Description

Summers took advantage of the hillside location to produce a record-breaking drop from a modest 95-foot lift hill. As the train left the station, it veered to the left as it descended nearly 50 feet then made a right-hand 180 degree turn to align with the lift hill that was parallel to the station.[6] After climbing the lift, the train encountered a small dip, a turn to the left, and dropped 151 feet down the hillside at 65 mph. At the bottom of the hill, the train went through a highly-banked right-hand turn that swooped out over the park's lake. Upon completion of the 180-degree, the train entered a triple-up to climb back up the hillside.[6] Once over the top, riders encountered an airtime drop under the station house, then a rise into a high-banked right turn. The next few drops were much smaller, as the track led riders past the station. Another high right-hand turn was followed by a drop of around 50 feet, before the train hopped up onto the holding brake.[3]

Modifications

During testing, the coaster had difficulty climbing out of the valley, occasionally coming to a stop on the anti-rollbacks at the top of the triple-up. On media day members of the Dinn crew were stationed at the high point of the triple-up for the first runs of the day to make certain the train cleared the top of the hill. After the first few weekends of operation, the top of the hill was lowered by three feet.[3] Hercules was running with a newly designed Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters (PTC) train that featured six four-seat cars coupled together with a trailer hitch. However, the hitch point was too far back from the rear wheel axle of each car, which caused the cars to oscillate in a side-to-side motion. Since these new trains coincided with the first Dinn and Summers coasters, this shaking became known to coaster enthusiasts as the "Dinn shuffle".[7] Summers had calculated the correct angle for the high-speed turn at the bottom of the first drop, but with all the forces directed downward toward the bottom of the rails, the train moved from side to side trying to find the right path along the rails. This motion was further aggravated by the design of the PTC trailered trains. Eventually, the banking angle of the turn was lessened to keep the guide wheels pressed against the outside rail, but the turn remained problematic, requiring frequent retracking and reinforcement. The trailered trains were eventually replaced with articulating trains, and by the coaster's fifth year of operation, a trim brake was added to the top of the drop. In 1994, park owner Cedar Fair contracted John F. Pierce Associates to make several off-season modifications. The triple-up was converted to a double-up and lowered even further, the drop under the station was reduced, and the trim brake at the top of the drop was set higher to reduce the speed even further.[7] During its operating life, the ride was retracked multiple times by Martin & Vleminckx.[8]

location	Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom
replacement	Hydra the Revenge
type	Wood
status	Removed
opened	May 6, 1989
closed	September 1, 2003
manufacturer	Dinn Corporation
designer	Curtis D. Summers
model	Terrain
track	Double out-and-back
lift	Chain lift hill
height ft	95
drop ft	151
length ft	4000
speed mph	65
inversions	0
duration	2:15
angle	47
cost	$6 million
restriction in	48
rcdb number	241
coordinates	40.58111°N, -75.53222°W

Hercules (roller coaster)

History

Description

Modifications

Demise

Tallest coaster controversy

References