Amusement Park News

There's a new coaster thrilling guests at Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom in Allentown, PA. The Bolliger and Mabillard dive coaster, Iron Menace, is the first brand new attraction at the park since it debuted the 2005 floorless Hydra the Revenge nineteen years ago. As the park's eighth coaster overall, it is also the first Bolliger and Mabillard dive coaster in the northeast, and just the 7th overall in North America.

This new coaster is located in an area of the park that is new itself, the Steel Yard. Both the area and the ride are tributes to the steel industry that was an intrinsic part of the Lehigh Valley region where the park is located.

Iron Menace features an ascent of 160 feet – which takes place prior to a 95-degree, 152-foot drop. And that's just the start to its many twists, turns, and thrills. A three-second pause hanging over that more-than vertical drop at the top provides riders with a look at the fiercely impressive first drop, as well as a sweeping view of the park and the area around it, before the rest of the fun and screams begin.



“The drop is the star,” Jessica Naderman, Dorney Park's vice president and general manager asserts. She points out that it holds you for those long three seconds so that “you get to contemplate ‘Why did I make this decision, why did I ride this ride?'” she laughs.

That exhilarating and terrifying drop is also well-positioned for a viewing area that allows park visitors to get a taste of the ultimate thrills they may or may not want to experience.

After the drop, riders will experience the half loop and twist 180-degree flip Immelmann inversion; a zero G-roll weightlessness; and in a first for any dive coaster, a tilted loop. If all of that isn't exciting enough, the one-minute-long ride concludes with a 360-degree corkscrew spin. There are four inversions in all.



With a speed of 64 miles-per-hour and nearly 2200 track feet, this thriller requires riders to be a minimum of 48 inches in height to climb aboard. Iron Menace features two trains, each equipped with three sets of seven rows of seats and can handle 21 riders per train, and up to 1140 passengers hourly.

According to Clayton Lawrence, Cedar Fair parks corporate creative producer, “When we envisioned a new thrill ride for Dorney Park, we knew we needed to design a completely unique experience to the northeast. In doing so, we wanted to make sure it was rooted in the Lehigh Valley and the unique industrial, paranormal history that is in the area.”  He emphasizes the company's commitment to creating new attractions at the park, describing the Allentown area as an expanding market. “We had a few recycled attractions, now we have a refined commitment to the area because it is a growing market,” he says.

Lawrence also cites Cedar Fair's commitment to regional attractions that are based in relevant stories for each local area. At Dorney Park, that story focuses on the iron and steel-making history in the region's Lehigh Valley, and the tale of one Hiram S. McTavish, a steel baron.

The ride's backstory posits that the steel baron opened McTavish Steel Mill as a direct competitor to Bethlehem Steel Company; his greed prioritized profits over people, and he created a massive hauler – the eponymous “Iron Menace,” described as never before seen, and capable of moving workers and iron ore at a high speed and volume. Despite its financial success, McTavish disappeared, and the mill closed, leaving behind only a decrepit shell, rusted relics, and wild tales of the owner's whereabouts, along with plenty of ghosts.



Designed to represent a cursed defunct steel factory, guests entering the ride are then invited to board McTavish's old rail transporter. Lawrence says the park is excited about the ride station's theming as well as of the steel yard area around it, relating that “it really feels like an authentic, abandoned early 1900s factory.”

The ride was created over an 18-month period, with nine months of actual construction taking place.

Iron Menace is a highlight of the new Steel Yard section of the park, which thematically supports the new coaster. Other attractions in this section are MT Buckets, a renamed and rethemed Larson International flying scooters ride. MT Buckets features recreated old ladle buckets, hammered together from pieces of metal imprinted with the McTavish Steel logo on their fins, with the backstory that the buckets were made to cool large vats filled with liquid metal on each arm. Riders board individual buckets, hearing the contraption grind ominously as it spins them circularly airborne; riders can amplify their trajectory by using the cooler flaps located on each individual bucket.



The Steel Yard also offers a new gift shop, a restaurant and bar, and themed landscaping. The area includes signature pieces from the National Museum of Industrial. The new Iron Mill Grill and Bar offers treats such as chicken and pulled pork sandwiches, flatbreads, pierogies, pretzel bits, and deep fried TastyKake Krimpets. The park even has a ride-themed beverage, a new Iron Menace American lager beer from Emmaus, PA's Funk and Illumination Brewing that is served in the park.

Eldridge points out that the ride is more that an investment in the park alone: it's a commitment to the region, and the park's mission. “I think everybody will really connect with that, in a special way,” he says.

“The Northeast's first dive roller coaster is one of the largest capital investments in park history,” Naderman stresses. She notes that it's backstory “loosely connects riders to our area's rich industrial roots,” and as such, serves as part of “an impressive lineup” of attractions from the park's coasters, to the Planet Snoopy area for kids, and its waterpark, Wildwater Kingdom.

She adds that the ride is “furthering our commitment to support the Lehigh Valley economic development for another 140 years,” tracing the park's beginnings back to its origin as a summer resort stop back in 1884.

Along with the exciting addition of the Iron Menace to Dorney Park, this year also marks the 100th anniversary of the wooden framed rollercoaster, Thunderhawk.