BUENA PARK, Calif. — Following nine months of renovation work, GhostRider, the iconic wooden roller coaster at Knott’s Berry Farm, strutted its stuff for the media on June 9. The ride’s official reintroduction to the public, taking place June 11, coincides with the 75th anniversary celebration of its host area in the park, Ghost Town.

Work on the 118-foot-tall coaster performed by Great Coasters International, Inc. (GCII), of Sunbury, Pa., included the replacement of all 4,533 feet of track and the swap-out of the original double-axel Philadelphia Toboggan Company rolling stock for GCI’s trailer-style Millennium Flyer trains. The new trains sport a wood-grain barrel design

GhostRider has undergone some careful reprofiling to improve transitioning and to allow for the removal a mid-course block brake. The trains are slowed on the brake run by a new magnetic braking system.

Also expected to reduce overall maintenance on the ride, which runs year-round and reaches speeds exceeding 55 mph, is the retracking effort’s use of two layers of ipe (pronounced ee-pay) wood — an extremely durable wood native to Central America and South America also known as Brazilian walnut.

GhostRider originally opened at Knott’s Berry Farm in 1998. It was the last attraction commissioned for the park by the Knott family before they sold it to Cedar Fair Entertainment Company a year earlier.

—Dean Lamanna

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