Mini Comet was a B.A. Schiff & Associates steel kiddie coaster which operated in Hersheypark from 1974 to 1978. It was one of a handful of used rides Hersheypark purchased in its history. In its five operating seasons, Mini Comet operated in The Hollow and later in Kissing Tower Hill.

Where Mini Comet originated is seemingly lost to time, sadly. What we do know is that it was operating in another park and then put up for sale at a rather inexpensive. It was on sale somewhere in the general vicinity of Central Pennsylvania, possibly even northern Maryland. There were so many small parks in the area that closed in the early 70s – any one of those parks could have originally owned Mini Comet.

Shortly before the start of the 1974 season, a Hersheypark maintenance employee came across the coaster when he was driving in the area. He brought the kiddie coaster to Hersheypark, and the operations team decided to go ahead and install it. The process was so informal, that the ride was added too late for it to be added to the 1974 park map.

Mini Comet did end up on the 1974 souvenir map. This is because the souvenir map – the first edition created for the park – was created and sold during the middle of the 1974 season.

Mini Comet originally had a train with a leading teal car, then a yellow car, followed by a red car, a blue car, and then a trailing yellow car.

Mini Comet was the name given to the ride because it was placed in Comet Hollow, adjacent to Comet’s station. This was the location where the Carrousel was housed from 1929-1971, and is the location of Sweet Swing and Teacups, today.

Mini Comet operated in The Hollow location through the 1975 season. Following that season, Whip, located on Kissing Tower Hill, was retired. It left a gap in that area of the park, so the solution was to relocate Mini Comet to that location.

Mini Comet was repainted when it was relocated. The park kept the track red while they changed the train from each car being a different color to the entire train being solid blue.

In 1977, sooperdooperLooper was installed in The Hollow. The station for the looping coaster replaced Himalaya. Himalaya was a popular ride, so it was retained and relocated to Kissing Tower Hill. Mini Comet was shifted closer to the restroom building and the OutBoard Motor Boats, relocated from elsewhere in the park, was placed in front of it.

No ride exists exactly where Mini Comet stood its last two seasons. OutBoard Motor Boats was renovated into Granny Bugs and relocated in 1985, while Himalaya was retired after the 1989 season, replaced by Flying Falcon.

Throughout its operating years, Mini Comet required a lot of maintenance attention, beyond what most of the other rides needed. By 1978, this was becoming too much of a burden and at too much of a cost. At the end of the season, Hersheypark removed Mini Comet. Unlike the Twin Toboggans – which had been sold the prior year – Mini Comet was junked and sent to a scrap yard. It had too small a resale value to be worth selling.

As mentioned, Mini Comet was manufactured by B. A Schiff & Associates. This was the only Ben Schiff ride the park purchased. Schiff was a notable ride manufacturing company having gotten the North American rights to build Wild Mouse, among manufacturing other coasters and amusement rides.

However, because Mini Comet’s existence was so informal and fleeting, the knowledge of the ride became lost to time. Even who manufactured the ride became confusing. Only a few sources noted that Hersheypark had a kiddie coaster, and those sources said that Mini Comet was either an Allan Herschell coaster, or a Miler Manufacturing coaster.

In order to establish the correct manufacturer, a variety of different models of kiddie coasters were compared to one another, and Mini Comet.

When comparing them, it was clear that Mini Comet was not an Allan Herschell coaster. The track for the ride and the train looked very different from Herschell kiddie coasters. The process narrowed down to two manufacturers – Miler and Schiff. In the end, the differences between Miler kiddie coasters and Schiff kiddie coasters made Mini Comet easy to identify.

The key difference was that Schiff models had fewer and bigger dips than Miler models. Because Mini Comet had fewer and bigger dips like other Schiff models, it was found that Mini Comet was indeed a Schiff kiddie coaster.

Below is a video about the history of Mini Comet.

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