Facts About The Comet

Re-engineered and re-opened in May, 1948 at Crystal Beach Ontario as The Comet, it started out in life as the much feared Cyclone. The Comet was saved from the scrap heap, re-built and re-opened in 1994 at The Great Escape. Here it resides as "King of the Hills" and has earned a worldwide reputation as simply, The Best!

Type:
A classic wood roller coaster. While it has a steel structure, the track is made of nine layers of wood. It is the track upon which the trains ride which distinguishes between wood and steel coasters.

Power:
Gravity, except for the first lift in which the train is pulled up the incline by a chain attached to a 200 hp drive system.

Configuration:
Double out and back 

Of Note:
The only roller coaster to have been built three times.
Absent for 48 years, the latticed roof trusses from the Cyclone have been restored for the train station.

Comet Statistics:
95-feet high
Length of three football fields
4,197 running feet of track
Steepest angle of decline = 50 degrees
Ride time about two minutes
Carries 24 riders

Age:
51 as The Comet and 72 in all.

Originally Built:
1927, as The Cyclone; Crystal Beach, Ontario, Canada

First Rebuilding:
1947; reopened/renamed The Comet, May 22, 1948

Purchased:
At auction in 1989 upon closure of Crystal Beach.

Cost:
$210,000.

Second Rebuilding:
1993-94 at The Great Escape

Rebuilding '94:
Cost $3.5 million (approximate)

Statistics:
Began on Oct. 7, 1993
Took 82,000 man hours.

Used:
1,200 yards of concrete.
1,632 gallons of paint.
253,225 board feet of lumber for track & walkboard.
56,390 bolts.

Track:
Nine 2-inch by 8-, 10-, and 12-inch Douglas fir planks, laminated together with six-inch steel plate and bolted to the track.

New Trains:
By Philadelphia Toboggan Company, the firm that originally engineered the ride.

Consulting Engineer:
John F. Pierce, one of three people in the world specializing in wooden roller coasters.

Ride Control Designer:
Glenn McNair, Birket Engineering, Inc.