The Silver Comet was a very, very good wooden roller coaster. I was fortunate to be in the area and was able to hit the park on a school day with no more than 1000 people in the park. I got the first two rides of the day on the Comet, alone in the back seat (it was really a ghost town at opening) and came off disappointed. With an empty train, it reall moved slow and was not as good as I had expected. Fortunately, I figured the emptyness was playing a major role, and I didnt write it off at that point. I came back over and over in the short day, riding it about 10 times, with 7 rides in the back car and three in the front row. It is certainly a back car coaster. The front was nice, but the back provided some awesome airtime, especially on the first trip "out". That was a very good start to the ride, and the view of the island was neat.The middle part of the ride was a bit dreary to me. The coaster, even when full, seemed to glide through the track rather than speed through it. The pacing just wasnt there for that part, though it still provided a couple of nice little air pops here and there and some good lateral.s Oh, the laterals, they were overall wonderful on the Silver Comet. I thought for a second that we were on a GCI and not a CCI. Though the coaster had an ok middle section (in my book) it came to a point on the turnaround to head back towards the station for the second time that one of the best moments of lateral forces I have ever experienced occured. The riders were slammed to the right on a tight and high-banked turn that just dropped to the ground. From there, the ride really kicked butt again in the last third, with a couple of little bunny hills and another sharp turn up into the brake run, providing more vertical and horizontal Gs.Overall, the ride was pretty good. Though I hate steel supports on woodies, I can live with it for a good ride. I also, for some reason, liked the stations sign. The PTCs were just PTCs... nothing new there, and the great beginning and the fantastic ending make Silver Comet a wonderful woodie, but only the middle section kept it from being a 10. It was pretty good, but it just did not live up to its own bookend sections. The ride, and the park, are worth half a day at Martins. Too bad they only run one train, and dont even have a storage shed. I wouldnt want to be there with a large summertime crowd, so try to hit one of the school days in June when the park is empty and the admission is about half off.
Edit: I rode it again today during peak conditions. The ride was running very fast and the forces were as strong as ever. The one-train operations didnt hurt the ride much at all as the line rarely stretched beyond the bottom of the stairs. I managed to ride 16 times within three hours or so (with other rides mixed in between) so the single train may not be much of an issue at all. That is, until the ACE Spring Con is there next year and you get a couple hundred angry ACErs hungry for ERT. This thing still flies into the brake run and is just plain fun. Consider it a 9.5 and definate Top 20 material.
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