((Not sure I've ever seen such rollers in use in a playground situation. The versions in my mind's eye look too much like an H&S nightmare if intended to be used by children.))
The ones in playgrounds aren't powered. They might be considered unsafe these days for all I know, I haven't seen them recently a lot of stuff that was in playgrounds when I was a kid is now considered dangerous by enough people to not be around much any more.
I suppose like the "Witch's Hat" thing[1] was supposedly banned, even tbough I've seen more modern versions[2] recently. But when I was young the height of playground fashion, if you wanted a place with more than swings and maybe a roundabout, was an old unwanted (post usabilty, pre-restoration era) steam roller or traction engine[3] left to rust in situ.
But since I wrote the above quoted text, I now recall perhaps seeing playground rollers on the continent (maybe Denmark, close to 40 years ago), but then Europe was always more sophisticated that way. I have half a memory that it was just wide enough to send buckets of sand around, in a kind of 'chute' housing, not enough room for kids to ride or even practical to try to get one's foot trapped in.
To make the intended
on-topic point about rollers:
here's a largish image (that I therefore won't embed) of a curved-path friction roller unit. Imagine that placed in a slightly elevated position between the rails (and straight, if the rail section is actually straight) pushing or pulling on the underside of any cart that rolls over it.
'Nough said for now about that, I suppose. Carry on!
[1] Conic climbing frame with 'brim', pivoted up inside the point so that it spins (like a roundabout) and swings (like an inside-out swingset). Theoretically you hang on for dear life either seated on the brim, stood on the brim while holding onto the cone or even climb up the cone a bit if it gives you purchase to do so. Between you, any other rider and any non-rider standing close enough to tug the rim around you can set the thing swinging and (from the latter guy) spinning. The varying centripetal forces would actually be less for someone who climbs higher off the ground, with a risk of being thrown off if you can't deal with spin+swing stresses on your grip. Meanwhile anyone standing too close risks getting chinned by the brim if they don't look out for where it's swinging spin next sends the brim rim. (Or they could stand within the Hat, but there's nothing to stop the swing clanging the cone up against the central pole with a clang - except anyone unlucky enough to stand there when it's about to.) For some reason, however, I heard these had been banned/decomissioned.
[2] Smaller, like only 10-12ft rather than 18-20ft (both ranges estimates!), made of 'rope' mesh held out by a slightly forgiving ring rather than entirely of tubular steel, with a hammocky-interior rather than a brim, to ride on, and supported by an external double-A/H framey support from above the point, splayed wide enough not to be Hat-hit one presumes and possibly fit to a non-rotating Universal Joint to allow omnidirectional swinging whilst preventibg all spinning, rather than freely balancing on tip of the internal support-pole. Still a risk of chinning (and general falling off the outside) but maybe less crushing injuries would result.
[3]With wheels partially sunk into the grass/gravel, probably painted all over in blue or green paint after anything too dangerous was welded immobile (if lucky, there'd be some turnable handles to twiddle, though they'd never do anything major like move the steering, even if they once did. And even though no pistons moved, cams oscillated or flywheels flew, there'd be an amazing number of hard metal knobs, shafts, pushrods and angular bits of casing that you could so easily slip and fall into (or trap your ankle behind, on your way down) when clambering all over the boiler or coalbox as one was clearly invited to do. They probably got fully scrapped (or went somewhere to eventually be saved for restoration) at about the time H&S pointed out their flaws to the council/pub who ran that playground, to be replaced by 'safer' equipment like the (original) Witch's Hat..!
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Topic: Steam/Itch.io tileset - Mayday/Ironhand - Discussion and Suggestions (Read 460640 times)