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The Peas Railway

Peas Railway
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The peas railway is built quickly and can repeatedly be used as a game station at a school festival, street festival or at a cross-country game. No matter what age, this game is always one of the winners at every play night, festival, etc.

How is the game played?

Each player has 10 peas available. The game leader at the play station throws a pea in the upper opening of the hose. As the pea rolls down the hose, coming out on the other side, one player tries to stop the pea by flattening it with a hammer. For the bottom surface use a wood- or terrace board. Once the pea has rolled off the board the pea counts as a miss. With other words the pea coming out of the hose has to be “smashed” really quickly.

In case the tube is transparent, the game then becomes a little bit easier. An opaque tube, on the other hand, requires an even faster response, because you only can see the pea when it tumbles out of the tube. Maybe by listening one could estimate at which part of the tube the pea happens to be. Therefore, you might be able to calculate the seconds for the pea to appear and then hit it at random.

Rating: Every smashed pea receives a point. In a team, each player gets the same number of peas, and so he must earn points.

How to build a pea track?

Material:

Washing machine tube, about 100 cm long, internal diameter 2 cm or ore if possible cable ties or mounting cord
In addition: wooden board (50x30cm),
80-100cm rod or pole,
2 mounting brackets, for fastening the lower end of the hose (U-metal, 2 nails, screws or 2 wooden blocks to screw it to the right / left at the outlet)
Enough peas, large hammer (mallet or plastic hammer for paving)

There are 2 possibilities

The first variant, attach an approx. 70-80cm long rod with 1-2 metal brackets on a thick, stable, wooden board. Next fasten the hose (100cm) to the rod. Make sure the hose winds around the rod 3-4 times. The bottom part of the tube fix with cable ties or something similar, just to make sure the opening always points in the same direction. Now fasten the upper end the same way.

The tube itself should have an inside diameter of 15-20mm, so a pea can loosely roll down.

The second variant is the so-called mobile version. All you need is a hose and some fastening cords or cable ties around a rod (i.e. a lamppost, wooden pole fence, etc.) and tie it up there. For a surface, you can use the asphalt there or else, like above, use a wooden- or terrace board. After the game, you untie the hose and put it back into your toy box.