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Is Phantom’s Revenge at Kennywood classed as an Arrow or a Morgan?

Matt N

CF Legend
Hi guys. I know this might seem like a random question, but I was only wondering; is Phantom’s Revenge typically classed as an Arrow coaster or a Morgan coaster? I was wondering because for me, it’s always felt like a bit of a grey area, because Arrow built the original coaster in 1991, but Morgan did the huge modifications and from what I can tell, I think there’s very little of what Arrow built actually left.

What do you guys reckon?
 

Hutch

Strata Poster
Quick look on RCDB and Wikipedia suggests that it's an Arrow hyper. The first half or the ride, more or less, still uses the OG Arrow track, while the second half (and perhaps some other reprofiling here and there) is Morgan.

Certainly is a grey area though. Suppose it can be included in both the Arrow hyper and Morgan hyper conversations.
 

Antinos

Slut for Spinners
Yeah, RCDB still lists it as an Arrow but to be honest, most of the ride is Morgan now. More importantly, the real meat of the ride - what makes the ride what it is - is all Morgan.
 

Hyde

Matt SR
Staff member
Moderator
Social Media Team
While I usually defer to RCDB on these types of matters, I do think they have it wrong here.

Originally, Morgan replaced everything from the second drop to the brake run; still making it an arguable Arrow Hyper coaster. Morgan did subsequent track replacements through the years however, which (today) leaves only the brake run, station, and lift hill as original Arrow track.

Given that Morgan changed majority of the layout with the Phantom's Revenge redesign, AND now has replaced virtually all track - it's a Morgan Hyper.
 

Snoo

The Legend
While I usually defer to RCDB on these types of matters, I do think they have it wrong here.

Originally, Morgan replaced everything from the second drop to the brake run; still making it an arguable Arrow Hyper coaster. Morgan did subsequent track replacements through the years however, which (today) leaves only the brake run, station, and lift hill as original Arrow track.

Given that Morgan changed majority of the layout with the Phantom's Revenge redesign, AND now has replaced virtually all track - it's a Morgan Hyper.

This right here. Hard to argue for Arrow as they had no design input, placed no track, and have only been going away for years now. Even the trains are Morgan as well. Unique and one of a kind trains which could be used on other Arrows tbh. I'd love to see those trains on Magnum. :)
 
This right here. Hard to argue for Arrow as they had no design input, placed no track, and have only been going away for years now. Even the trains are Morgan as well. Unique and one of a kind trains which could be used on other Arrows tbh. I'd love to see those trains on Magnum. :)


Morgan have only replaced the trains bodies and restraints, the chassis and running gear is still the original Arrow.
Unless the rides entire control system has been updated as well then I would say it's only Morgan in appearance as the bits you don't necesarily get to see are still all Arrow.
 

jay37415

Mega Poster
Unless the rides entire control system has been updated as well then I would say it's only Morgan in appearance as the bits you don't necesarily get to see are still all Arrow.
Actually Irvine Ondrey Engineering did a complete update of the control system cabinet and PLC logic back in 2014.

The only thing left on the coaster thats Arrow is the lift to the end of the straight section and the chassis of the trains. For the sake of the conversation, I would list Steel Phantom as Arrow and Revenge as Morgan.
 
Actually Irvine Ondrey Engineering did a complete update of the control system cabinet and PLC logic back in 2014.

The only thing left on the coaster thats Arrow is the lift to the end of the straight section and the chassis of the trains. For the sake of the conversation, I would list Steel Phantom as Arrow and Revenge as Morgan.

If they replaced the entire sensor suite as well then I will retract my statement ?

I suppose the only way to know for sure is to compare the original designs to what has had to be designed from scratch for the updates.
 

jay37415

Mega Poster
Ok! Did a little more digging on the control system. What I gathered is that over winter 2013/2014 the trains were sent out to be modified. They came back heavier and faster that the old ones. This extra weight and speed was causing the trains to overshoot the brake run which in turn caused block faults if running two trains. So for most of the spring of 2014 they could only run one train.
That's where Irvine Ondrey Engineering comes in. Kennywood had them come in and add extra brakes and reconfigure the brake run and make some modifications to the PLC cabinet. It appears they didn't do a complete overhaul of the control system


I suppose the only way to know for sure is to compare the original designs to what has had to be designed from scratch for the updates.

I work in maintenance at a large automated factory. It has only been running about ten years and a lot of control systems have been modified from the original plans. A lot of times its to make it run better. So I would guess the same is true for Phantom.
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I work in maintenance at a large automated factory. It has only been running about ten years and a lot of control systems have been modified from the original plans. A lot of times its to make it run better. So I would guess the same is true for Phantom.
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A lot of machinery in pretty much every industry gets tweaked and modified within the first few months and years of operation in an effort to improve efficiency where possible and solve niggly little problems.

Modifying rides (at least in Britain) is a different ballache however, even modifications made by the manufacturer are required to have a design review by the independant inspector to determine if the change will be safe.
 
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