Talon at Dorney Park: The Northeast’s Quiet Inverted Coaster

Talon is an inverted steel roller coaster at Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom in Allentown, Pennsylvania, built by Swiss manufacturer Bolliger & Mabillard (B&M) and designed by Werner Stengel. It opened to the public on May 5, 2001, at a cost of about $13 million and was marketed at the time as the tallest and longest inverted coaster in the Northeastern United States.

Themed around birds of prey with the tagline “the grip of fear,” Talon sends riders through a 3,110-foot circuit that climbs 135 feet before diving 120 feet into a sequence of four inversions. One of its most distinctive traits is how quiet it runs for a B&M coaster, a result of packing the track with sand to dampen the usual clatter of the trains.

Stats at a Glance

• Park: Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom, Allentown, PA
• Manufacturer: Bolliger & Mabillard
• Opened: May 5, 2001
• Height: 135 ft
• Top speed: 58 mph
• Length: 3,110 ft
• Inversions: 4

The Ride Experience

After a 135-foot lift, Talon’s train plunges 120 feet into a vertical loop, then flows into a zero-gravity roll, an Immelmann loop, and a flat spin, all at speeds up to 58 mph. With riders’ legs dangling below the track, the inverted layout adds a sense of vulnerability to every twist, while the roughly two-minute ride keeps the pacing brisk from launch to brake run.

Each of Talon’s two trains carries 32 riders across eight cars, four seats to a row, giving the ride an hourly capacity of about 1,200 guests. Riders must be at least 54 inches tall to board.

A Quieter Kind of B&M

B&M inverted coasters are known for a distinctive clatter as trains roll over track joints, but Talon’s designers filled sections of the structure with sand and gravel specifically to muffle that noise. The result is a ride that feels noticeably smoother and quieter than its B&M siblings elsewhere in the country, a detail coaster enthusiasts still point out today.

Talon’s track was fabricated by Clermont Steel Fabricators in Batavia, Ohio, and the finished ride reaches a maximum force of about 4.5 G’s through its four inversions, making it one of the more intense credits in Dorney Park’s lineup.

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Talon FAQs

Who manufactured Talon at Dorney Park?

Talon was built by Bolliger & Mabillard (B&M), the Swiss firm known for inverted and hyper coasters, with track design by Werner Stengel.

How many inversions does Talon have?

Talon has four inversions: a vertical loop, a zero-gravity roll, an Immelmann loop, and a flat spin.

Why is Talon quieter than other B&M coasters?

Dorney Park filled portions of Talon’s track with sand and gravel during construction specifically to reduce the noise the trains make as they pass over the rails.

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Photo: Coasterman1234 (talk) / CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.