PHOTO BY HUCK BEARD

It’s a simple machine: a pulley, a ball and a track.

But I never tire of watching it, and the kids never tire of making it go.

PHOTO BY HUCK BEARD

Inside the Garage, the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh’s two-story atrium where things roll, bounce, spin and fly, the ball machine seems to be perpetually in motion. A colorful ball starts in a wire cylinder, and a child tugs on the end of the rope to move the ball up, up, up, before it spills out onto a series of wire tracks overhead. There, it speeds round and round, bouncing ever so slightly on certain turns or drops, threatening to return to the floor. When it does, on occasion, an eager child will nab it and race it back to the starting cylinder. Most of the time, the ball successfully reaches the end of its journey — where it can start all over again.

Another pulley system nearby is meant for small parachutes to travel from the floor into the air, where they shoot off a platform above. There, children line up to slide down a metal corkscrew slide, accessible via steps or a climbing rope net — its own installation by Manca Ahlin.

PHOTO BY HUCK BEARD

Elsewhere in the Garage, where the brick walls and domed ceiling are original to the former Buhl Planetarium (which was located at the site), you can configure pegs into a massive board on the wall to create a mechanical clock, build a toy vehicle with roller-blade wheels and try it out on a 37-foot test course, or navigate a Rube Goldberg music machine with a series of cascading actions.

Children and grownups alike wait for a turn on the Ball Bounce Array, where the goal is to push every one of the 16 metal balls to the top of a magnetic panel then drop them all at once with a satisfying release of a lever.

The overhead ball machine is technically a permanent installation by Henry Loustau, entitled Pulley Slowly Rolling Bop, but that’s the beauty of the Children’s Museum — it’s a place children can experience hands-on art. And the Garage is a shining example of how adults can experience all the fun right along with them.

Insider’s Tip: The Children’s Museum’s outdoor Backyard is easy to overlook, accessible only by walking past the gift shop and through the Studio out a side door. But the enclosed playground s everything you’d want in a childhood backyard — complete with a clubhouse, a sand pit and a musical swingset.

While You’re Here: Federal Galley is within walking distance and a great spot to dine out with kids; they can spread out on the Nova Place patio while waiting for their food. Plus, with four restaurants inside one concept, everyone can find something they like on the menu.